Venezuela's state oil company is struggling with an «operational emergency» because it has not been able to hire enough oil drilling rigs, the country's oil minister said in published remarks Tuesday, AP reported. Rafael Ramirez told the El Universal daily that Venezuela's state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, needs to hire dozens more rigs to reach rising production targets. «There's effectively an operational emergency and the board (of directors) determined this because if we do not accelerate the (oil rig) tender process, a situation is going to arise that could prevent production plans from being reached,» Ramirez was quoted as saying. The Paris-based International Energy Agency, which collects and analyzes statistics related to the international oil market, calculates that oil output in Venezuela _ a major supplier of crude to the United States _ has fallen to 2.37 million barrels a day, down from 2.6 million barrels a day a year ago. Venezuela claims to be producing more than 3 million barrels a day. «We hope to reach 3.2 million barrels by the end of the year,» Ramirez said.
