|
 In the country's Paraguana peninsula, opposite the Caribbean island
of Aruba, slum dwellers at times break through a perimeter wall into
Venezuela's biggest refinery and rob machinery, construction tools,
and cables to sell as scrap.
On the other side of the OPEC country in Monagas state, around
26,000 potential barrels were lost in March during a shutdown after
state oil company employees and contractors stole copper cables and
caused a tank to overflow.
Venezuela's national crime pandemic - the United Nations says the
country has the world's second-highest murder rate after Honduras -
is a growing headache for the oil industry, which accounts for
nearly all of the country's export revenues.
Hold-ups and thefts in the sector are on the rise, taking a toll on
output, according to interviews with around 40 people, including oil
workers, union leaders, foreign executives, opposition politicians,
scrap dealers, and people who live near oil installations.
Shortages of spare parts or the prospect of further theft stymie
replacements of the stolen items, forcing some wells to function at
partial capacity or at times even shut down, the people said.
"The scrap seekers are uncontrollable," said National Guard
Lieutenant Lenin Oscan, who helps oversee security at the northern
Paraguana's 645,000 barrel-per-day Amuay refinery where, he added,
20-30 people sometimes sneak in at once.
"Any day now they could commit irreparable harm to the refinery,"
added Osuna, speaking in a barracks next to Amuay as he leafed
through a thick folder documenting criminal incidents.
Evidence of the rising crime threat to the oil industry is chiefly
anecdotal due to a dearth of data and publicly disclosed cases,
which the sources chiefly attributed to fears of retribution from
perpetrators and a climate of impunity.
The Oil Ministry's 2014 annual report acknowledged the problem but
did not provide details.
"A high frequency of events linked to insecurity in oil fields has
affected operational continuity in generation and maintenance due to
theft and loss of components of equipment, materials and consumer
goods," it read.
The ministry and state oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] did not respond
to detailed requests for further information.
Gangs, including those that have for years prowled the waters of
Lake Maracaibo, are lured by the oil sector's valuable
infrastructure as Venezuela's economic crisis turns tools, computers
and machinery into rare and coveted goods.
Some workers, foreign executives and opposition politicians allege
this trend has been exacerbated by lax oversight that has allowed
crime groups to form within PDVSA's workforce of around 152,000.
"Workers recruited to be drillers end up as bandits who kill, rob,
and hold up their colleagues or steal equipment," said Americo De
Grazia, an opposition legislator on the National Assembly's
commission on energy and petrol who is in touch with oil workers and
union bosses.
"They're turning the oil industry into a no man's land where no one
can instill order," said De Grazia, adding his attempts to debate
the issue have been rebuffed in parliament.
POLITICAL 'SABOTAGE'?
PDVSA says it is up against "sabotage" from political enemies who
see damaging the oil industry as a means to weaken President Nicolas
Maduro's socialist government.
The company points to measures, including the arrest of employees
for the Monagas theft and the deployment of the army to protect
installations in that state, as proof Venezuela is taking oil crime
seriously.
"We are trying to increase security," PDVSA president Eulogio Del
Pino told Reuters in April during a media trip to the Orinoco Belt
in the country's southeast. He added that the problem was far more
serious in neighboring Colombia, for instance, where guerrillas
frequently blow up pipelines.
Fellow oil-rich nations like Nigeria and Mexico have also struggled
with oil crime for years.
Currency controls that hurt imports and cash flow, as well as a
brain drain of Venezuelans leaving the country, are more salient
challenges for Venezuelan output, which PDVSA recently put at
roughly 2.85 million barrels per day.
Oil output in Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven
reserves, has been falling or stagnating for about a decade,
according to U.S. Energy Information Administration figures.
Venezuela's output figures often conflict with international
agencies. PDVSA says it has shored up production in recent months,
thanks to the heavy-crude-rich Orinoco region.
[to top of second column] |
Venezuela's western border - known locally as the "hot frontier"- is
particularly restive due to a mix of Colombian paramilitaries,
Marxist FARC rebels, drug gangs, and smuggling rings.
In January, for instance, PDVSA reported one of its employees was
killed during a night-time hold-up by seven criminals at a well near
Lake Maracaibo.
The "pirates" of Lake Maracaibo, a massive bay where the country's
oil boom took off a century ago, target cables and devices that
control gas injection, according to several PDVSA employees who work
on the water and spoke on condition of anonymity. Small groups of
armed men on boats typically zip up to an oil platform at night and
hold up workers, stealing everything from microwaves to wallets to
machinery, according to oil workers.
That crimps operations at wells, and at times forces them to shut
down entirely. A shortage of boats - due to stolen motors and a
scarcity of parts- further curbs surveillance on the lake, they
added.
"We've returned to the stone age due to theft," one PDVSA engineer
said, resting at a relative's home after his shift in the sweltering
Caribbean area.
"Whatever you replace, they'll steal."
CONVOYS, FENCES, SURVEILLANCE
Robbers also target the vast Orinoco Belt, where Venezuela is
pinning its hopes of sustaining a production increase to fight
declines in mature fields like those around Maracaibo.
Foreign oil companies who operate joint ventures with PDVSA there
are pushing for increased security and some have already introduced
convoy systems, built fences, and boosted surveillance, sources
close to the JVs said.
Russia's top oil producer Rosneft, for instance, is seeking more
safety guarantees for its Orinoco operations, a source close to the
issue said.
Del Pino, a Stanford-educated engineer tapped in September to lead
PDVSA, said the company is working with the government to declare
the Orinoco a national security area.
"(That means) if someone tries something there they will have a lot
of problems," said Del Pino, widely seen as a pragmatist trying to
depoliticize and clean up the oil giant critics say has become
bloated.[ID:nL1N0VD271]
Amuay's security was doubled in January. Soldiers disguised as
workers patrol the refinery at all times and several workers are
under investigation, Lieutenant Osuna said.
Critics counter that is a drop in the ocean.
Criminals still break into Amuay daily, local union leaders say, at
times on motorbikes. Night shift workers fear being held up on their
way to the bathroom and fret for their cars after a rash of
robberies at the Amuay parking lot this year.
"They can rob you here in the actual refinery, it's happened," one
worker said. "It happened in the past too but never in such a nasty
way."
Security is also tight for foreign executives visiting the capital
Caracas, with measures at times including use of armored vehicles or
a ban on travel after dark, according to security consultants and
sources in the oil industry.
Meanwhile, the "pirates" attack oil platforms between five and six
times a month, estimated Francisco Luna, a machinist in Lake
Maracaibo and a leader of Venezuela's oil workers' federation.
"The platforms are in isolated areas. It's easier than stealing in
the city," he said.
While Venezuela's sprawling and remote oilfields have suffered crime
for decades, industry veterans say the situation has taken a turn
for the worse.
"I wouldn't work in Lake Maracaibo now," said one retired PDVSA
worker who gave his last name as Sanchez as he rode a bike near the
water, wearing old PDVSA work overalls.
"It's too dangerous."
(Additional reporting by Sailu Urribarri in Punto Fijo, Isaac
Urrutia in Maracaibo, and Andrew Cawthorne in the Orinoco Belt;
Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Mary
Milliken, and Stuart Grudgings.)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
