PDVSA: Vandalism causes US$10bn costs

Damage caused to installations during and since the December-Februray strike at Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA has caused US$10bn worth of damage, newspaper El Universal reported the company's outgoing eastern division loss prevention and control manager, Gustavo Perez Issa, as saying. Perez and a number of regional PDVSA managers were speaking to an energy and mines ministry commission investigating the effects of the strike. Perez blamed ex-PDVSA employees for a number of the 18 acts of vandalism that the company has identified from April through October this year. At the order of President Hugo Chavez, army colonel Wilmer Barrientos Fernandez will replace Perez, who will move to another position within PDVSA or its subsidiaries. Meanwhile, insurance agents have put a US$100mn price tag on repairs to the damage sustained at the Paraguana refinery complex (CRP) by an explosion and fire on October 19, and will not pay if it is shown that negligence was the cause, newspaper El Mundo reported. The incident destroyed a power substation and had knock-on effects to air conditioning, cooling water and distillation units, according to former CRP managers Javier Colina and Julio Prince.