Ciudad Guayana is a city in Bolívar State, Venezuela. It stretches 40 kilometers along the south bank of the Orinoco river, at the point where it is joined by its main tributary, the Caroní river. The Caroní flows through the city from south to north, dividing it into its predominant halves — the old town of San Félix, to the east, and the newer area of Puerto Ordaz, to the west.
Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil as well as exploration and production of natural gas. Since its founding on 1 January 1976, with the nationalization of the Venezuelan oil industry, PDVSA has dominated the oil industry of Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter.
Rafael Darío Ramírez Carreño is a Venezuelan engineer, politician, and diplomat. He joined the board of Venezuelan state-owned petroleum company PDVSA in 2002 and served as company president from 2004 to 2014. He also served as Venezuela's Minister of Energy from 2002 to 2014. He was the longest-serving cabinet member under President Hugo Chávez. In 2014, he briefly served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and then subsequently served as Venezuela's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. Ramirez was fired as UN representative by Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro the evening of November 28, 2017. He confirmed he had "resigned" at the request of Maduro on December 4, 2017
Leopoldo Sucre Figarella was a Venezuelan politician and engineer of Corsican ancestors. A member of the Sucre family Sucre Figarella served as governor, minister and senator during his long and eventful political career. He was nicknamed "The Builder" and "The Czar of Guayana".
The Venezuelan general strike of 2002–2003 was an attempt by the Venezuelan opposition to President Hugo Chávez to summon a new presidential election. It took place from December 2002 to February 2003, when it faded. The government fired over 18,000 PDVSA employees and arrest warrants were issued for the presidents of the striking organizations. The main impact of the strike derived from the stoppage of the oil industry, in particular the state-run PDVSA, which provides a majority of Venezuelan export revenue. The strike was preceded by the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt in April 2002, and a one-day strike in October 2002.
Water supply and sanitation in Venezuela is currently limited and many poor people remain without access to piped water. Service quality for those with access is mixed, with water often being supplied only on an intermittent basis and most wastewater not being treated. Non-revenue water is estimated to be high at 62%, compared to the regional average of 40%. The sector remains centralized despite a decentralization process initiated in the 1990s that has now been stalled. Within the executive, sector policies are determined by the Ministry of Environment. The national water company HIDROVEN serves about 80% of the population.
Venezuela has the largest conventional oil reserves and the second-largest natural gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere. In addition Venezuela has non-conventional oil deposits approximately equal to the world's reserves of conventional oil. Venezuela is also amongst world leaders in hydroelectric production, supplying a majority of the nation's electrical power through the process.
Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves at an estimated 304 billion barrels as of 2020. The country was previously one of the world's largest exporters of oil, but the oil industry saw a significant decline since its peak in 2012.
The Paraguaná Refinery Complex is a crude oil refinery complex in Venezuela. It is considered the world's second largest refinery complex, just after Jamnagar Refinery (India). The Paraguaná Refinery Complex was created by the fusion of Amuay Refinery, Bajo Grande Refinery and Cardón Refinery. The Paraguana Refinery Complex is still the largest refinery in the Western Hemisphere. As of 2012, it refined 955 thousand barrels per day (151,800 m3/d). The complex is located in the Paraguaná Peninsula in Falcón state and the western coast of Lake Maracaibo in the Zulia state. The complex accounts for 71% of the refining capacity of Venezuela and it belongs to the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
The electricity sector in Venezuela is heavily dependent on hydroelectricity, with this energy source accounting for 64% of the country's electricity generation in 2021.
C.V.G. Aluminio del Caroní S.A., known as Alcasa, is a state-owned aluminium producer in Venezuela. Founded in 1960, it began operations in 1967. It is part of the Corporación Venezolana de Guayana mining company, and one of the world's largest aluminium producers. In 1999, it had around 9000 employees.
Derwick is a Venezuelan energy company specializing in the construction of turn-key power plant projects. According to The Wall Street Journal, Derwick Associates "was awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts in little more than a year to build power plants in Venezuela shortly after the country's power grid began to sputter in 2009".
San Tomé is an oil company town, or camp, located about 8 miles northeast of the city of El Tigre, in the state of Anzoátegui in Venezuela. The town of San José de Guanipa, also called El Tigrito, lies between El Tigre and San Tomé. San Tomé lies about 60 miles (97 km) north of the Orinoco River, and about 90 miles (140 km) south of Puerto la Cruz and its oil refineries on the Caribbean Sea. San Tomé was originally an American planned community built in the 1930s by and for the Mene Grande Oil Company, a subsidiary of Gulf Oil Corporation. Ownership of San Tomé was assumed by Petróleos de Venezuela, Sociedad Anónima (PDVSA) after the oil industry was nationalized in 1975.
Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López is a Venezuelan businessman who is Chairman and CEO of Derwick Associates, an engineering, procurement and construction company. He is the leader of the international investment group O'Hara Administration, and a director of Pacific Exploration & Production Corporation, a publicly held Canadian company and a leading explorer and producer of natural gas and crude oil which operates in various Latin American countries. Betancourt controls 19.95% of Pacific Exploration & Production. He is also president of Hawkers, a Spanish sunglasses company.
Mauricio García Araujo was a Venezuelan economist who worked in both the private and public sectors. He was the president of the Central Bank of Venezuela between 1987 and 1989 during the presidency of Jaime Lusinchi (1984-1989).
India–Venezuela relations are the international relations that exist between the Republic of India and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Maribel Parra de Mestre is a Venezuelan naval officer and oil company executive. She graduated 11th in her class from the Military Academy of the Bolivarian Navy and her naval career included experience in the field of logistics, as an aide to the First Lady of Venezuela and deputy commander of cadets at the navy academy. In 2011 she became the first woman from Zulia to reach the rank of rear admiral and in 2014 was the first Venezuelan woman to be promoted to the rank of vice admiral. A supporter of former president Hugo Chávez, she was appointed by Chavez's successor Nicolás Maduro as executive vice president of the country's state-owned oil company PDVSA in 2017. This was interpreted by some as a takeover of the oil sector by the military.
Tarek William Saab Halabi is a Venezuelan politician, lawyer and poet. He was a leader of the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) party founded by Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela, who publicly called him "The poet of the revolution". He was the Governor of Anzoátegui from 2004 to 2012, and a member of the Committee for Justice and Truth since 2013. In December 2014, he was elected "People's Defender", or Ombudsman, by the National Assembly for 2014–2021 term. On 5 August 2017, the National Constituent Assembly appointed him as Attorney General in substitution of Luisa Ortega Diaz.
The following lists events of the year 2023 in Venezuela.
Pedro Rafael Tellechea Ruiz is a Venezuelan military officer, politician, and mechanical engineer, who holds high government positions as Minister of Popular Power for Petroleum and President of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). In addition, from 2020 until 2023, he held the presidency of Petroquímica de Venezuela.
