El Nacional has an article today about PDVSA’s natural gas plans in the 2007-2013 Development Plan. Like all of the “plans” by the revolution, it hasn’t worked out very well. What I had no clue about about was how badly it was going.
The plan was grandiose: “The gasification project is a social service considered strategic to improve the quality of life of the population, because it assigns the greatest contribution in happiness to the most humble sectors of the country”
Last year, the plan was relaunched, because up to now only 1% of the homes targeted had been supplied with natural gas to the home using pipelines. Only 20,000 homes of the 2 million planned now can say they have the service.
What’s the problem? Well, basically everything. The project called for investment of US$ 2.3 billion, however, roughly only US$ 580 million of this has been disbursed so far. Moreover, this budget is being revised, because steel pipes and labor have gone up due to both inflation and devaluation. The article notes that in Colombia, a similar plan gave 4 million people access to direct natural gas and it took 10 years to do it.
But it is not only a matter of building the infrastructure, with the fall of oil production, there is still a shortage of natural gas in the country. PDVSA emphasized the distribution of gas bottles, taking over 60% of the distribution from the private sector. But the lack of natural gas for the bottles has increased delivery from three days to 21 days. (An employee at work spend a full day in order to insure he gets a bottle)
The consequence? People buy electric burners for their homes, not only increasing consumption, but adding to the strain in a sector that has also been critical for the last two years.
The solution? Expropriate more gas bottle companies, sign an agreement with Belarus, announce that you will accelerate the program.
In the end, just more hot air…
The Devil's Excrement 
February 10, 2011 at 7:58 am
No idea…
February 10, 2011 at 6:43 am
You know if there’s anything to this? http://noticiascandela.blogspot.com/2011/02/ex-gerente-de-pdvsa-gas-investigado-se.html
February 9, 2011 at 7:01 am
Jose L Marcos:
In that sense the Revos are the uber-politicians:
They not only want (ALL!) our money for their dubious and unwarranted promises, they also want every freedom we might still have, with the sole warranty being the pie in the sky they offer.
Not surprising, given that they want everything in society to be party politics.
February 8, 2011 at 11:34 pm
These revolutionary people always want you to acknowledge their efforts, how hard they are trying to do things.
Never talk about results. In the real world results is what matters.
English speaking people have some lapidary sayings/proverbs
One that I like about results goes like this:
“Don’t tell me about your Labor Pains, Show me the Baby”
Hope you enjoy it
February 8, 2011 at 11:11 pm
maracucho importado
i was 29 years old when the rowan odessa drillship made a massive discovery off of sucre…now, i am 61 years old and the discovery is still waiting. 32 years just thrown away.
Hurricane Rita sank the Rowan Odessa in September 2005. The Rowan Odessa went the same direction that exploitation of the sucre gas reserves has gone: south.
February 8, 2011 at 11:10 pm
Thank you host….
Concerned … your right, you made me smile. I should stop smoking in
the bathroom 🙂
February 8, 2011 at 8:51 pm
Gordo has an interesting point. To me much of this is a distraction to the food issue. Even oil producing countries that are trying to build their economies are having problems http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704570104576124403803198950.html never mine one whose name I will not mention that is trying to destroy domestic commercial food production in favor of campoisimo (correct my grammar por favor) and the highly profitable importation of foodstuffs paid for by government money. The first makes a lot of very low paying jobs for a lot of people and the second makes a lot of money for a few people.
February 8, 2011 at 8:37 pm
“All I know is that AC (not “antes de Cristo”, but “antes de Chavez”) we used to be able to call a company for bottled gas by phone and have them deliver the bottle (the big ones, not the small ones)”
Service, competitiveness, management… these are COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY CONCEPTS, comrade.
They are also alien concepts to almost everything that is State-run…
February 8, 2011 at 12:41 pm
All I know is that AC (not “antes de Cristo”, but “antes de Chavez”) we used to be able to call a company for bottled gas by phone and have them deliver the bottle (the big ones, not the small ones). Now, DC (despues de Chavez), my husband or the man helping in the house has to go outside the house (sometimes for hours at a time) to see whether they can catch a truck delivering gas. We actually have two types of stoves in the house, a gas stove and a small electric stove, just in case we run out of gas and we can’t find a truck!!!!
February 8, 2011 at 12:35 pm
“Since majesty can’t get the sewers to work, I can only fear for the gas supply lines he has installed. ”
While his “majesty” is in power, you will have better luck piping up to the sewer systems for methane than from an organized distribution from PDVSA GAS.
February 8, 2011 at 9:17 am
And on another note after many glowing announcements about producing wind power in places like Margarita here is a foreigner’s take:
Wind Power Development Stalled in Venezuela
The government needs to stop sitting on its hands and get more serious about developing the wind sector if it wants to reap any benefits from it.
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/02/wind-power-development-stalled-in-venezuela
February 8, 2011 at 8:50 am
Let’s see, 20K out of 20 million, that’s 1%. Isn’t that slightly better than the amount of houses completed vs how many Chavez said they would build?
I just looked up country rankings of gas reserves, and I really thought Venezuela was higher than #9. Still, with over 2.5% of that total, imagine if they could produce 2.5% of world sales. That’s probably optimistic in pretty much any case, since Venezuela currently has about 1% of world production, and I believe most of that gets used for oil production (pumping the gas into the reservoir to increase pressure). But if production were proportional, they could still sell that extra 1.5%. Which would pretty much put them on par with Trinidad.
So find out how much revenue T&T makes from natural gas sales, and that’s the income Venezuela is forgoing from incompetence. From this one area, anyways.
February 8, 2011 at 7:35 am
hehe… gasification.
February 8, 2011 at 6:48 am
Distributing gas natural in pipelines in Venezuela can be very dangerous; in USA, with all securities measurements, have big explosions. Please better continue using bottles.
This time I prefer Regime incapacity to prevent big disasters and death in pipelines gas explotions. No more new pipelines please, in this regime is like plant bombs.
February 8, 2011 at 5:54 am
thank you host …
The fact the plan has not and most likely will not get off the ground while Majesty sits on his Thrown maybe a blessing in disguise.
Gas lines normally run around 2 feet below ground level. Water Supply about the same and sewers within a foot deeper from the lowest point of constructed foundation. Ground shifting, corrosion and overloading has destroyed the main sewers in VE, along with a lack of respect for what actually goes into them. A Kink in the gas pipe can result in a lot of death. ( You cant have craters in the middle of the roads )
Since majesty can’t get the sewers to work, I can only fear for the gas supply lines he has installed. I hope they didn’t put it into any high rises …
February 8, 2011 at 2:10 am
natural gas is methane CH4… it can be compressed and used as motor fuel,, piped to boilers. we are #7 in the world in natural gas reserves, but failed to develop this resource. i was 29 years old when the rowan odessa drillship made a massive discovery off of sucre.
this years later was to be the cristobal colon project,, cancelled,,, now the mariscal sucre development including a methane liquification plant to export lng, liquified natural gas,,, still a fiasco.
trinidad has been exporting lng 25 years.
now, i am 61 years old and the discovery is still waiting. 32 years just thrown away.
cooking gas is propane. C5H10, also called LPG. liquid at 10 atmospheres, is separated from produced methane, and light crude,,,, but it still has to be produced. it does not flow from a penned speech.
February 8, 2011 at 12:47 am
Yep. More of the same.
February 7, 2011 at 10:46 pm
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Venezuela Blogs (en), Democracy News Ven and Rafael Gotera, Miguel Octavio. Miguel Octavio said: PDVSA's gas plans, just more hot air http://wp.me/ppwPU-36S […]
February 7, 2011 at 10:39 pm
When did these, present-day “Socialists” start? When did they start caring about economic efficiency, efficient management, giving good service, etc., etc.?
They grabbed the bottled gas distribution outfits with a lot of gusto and not the slightest concern (or explaining of themselves) about how they were going to make service wonderful.
Same old… same as CANTV. It’s all about control, for control’s sake.
February 7, 2011 at 10:29 pm
One good thing about this… if you don’t have food, you don’t need gas or electricity to cook anything!