Exxon requests temporary Venezuelan halt

Exxon Mobil Corp. is moving to temporarily halt production at a Venezuelan oil field amid problems in getting the state oil company to transport crude being pumped there to market, the company said March 22.

For Irving, Texas-based ExxonMobil, the shut in at the La Ceiba field is the most recent in a string of setbacks.

Exxon spokesman Richard N. Bailey said in an e-mail that the company was notified by Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, that it would discontinue lifting crude oil from La Ceiba. As a result, Exxon “has proceeded to request to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum a temporary and safe shut down of production,” Bailey said.

It was not immediately clear why the state oil company had decided to stop lifting oil from the site.

La Ceiba is estimated to currently produce about 12,000 barrels a day.

Exxon and Canadian oil and gas company Petro-Canada each hold a 50 percent stake in the field, but Exxon is the operator of the contract. A spokeswoman at Petro-Canada confirmed that production at the field is currently shut in.

Last year Exxon sold its stake in a small oil field to Spanish-Argentine company Repsol YPF to avoid a new contract that put state company Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, in charge of operations. Then PDVSA ousted Exxon from a multibillion dollar petrochemicals project in February, claiming that the company did not meet timetables for getting the project off the ground.

Venezuela is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter and a main source of U.S. oil imports.

—The Associated Press