Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) earned record profit of $3.4 billion in the first quarter, up 80.2%

EFE News Service: State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) earned a record profit of $3.4 billion in the first quarter, up 80.2 percent from the same period in 2007. That profit came on total sales of $31.4 billion, a 51.6 percent increase over last year, according to a PDVSA report cited by Caracas daily El Nacional.

Venezuelan crude was selling last week for a record price of $120.93 a barrel, the country's Energy and Petroleum Ministry said. Most of Venezuela's oil is of the heavy, high-sulfur type that is more expensive to refine than light, sweet crude such as the benchmark Brent and West Texas Intermediate grades.

Venezuela produced an average of 3.2 million barrels per day of crude from January through March, the PDVSA report said. The country exported 2.8 million bpd during the first quarter, generating $30.7 billion. Seventy percent of that total was crude oil, while the rest consisted of refined products.

PDVSA provided $11.9 billion to the treasury in the first quarter, "practically double" the amount the firm paid in taxes and fees a year earlier. The company ended the quarter with $16 billion in debt.

Venezuela, a founding member of the Organization of Oil-Exporting Countries, is the globe's fifth-leading crude exporter and one of the principal suppliers of oil to the United States, which buys between 1.1 million and 1.5 million bpd from PDVSA. The Andean nation is currently undergoing a process to obtain international certification of its oil reserves.