PdV plans big spending year

VENEZUELA'S state-owned oil giant, PdV, is preparing to hike spending this year to hit a production target of 3.1m barrels a day (b/d) and upgrade its downstream capabilities. Its 2004 spending plans project expenditure of $15.1bn, a $3bn increase on the previous year, with about $5bn earmarked for improvements to refining capacity. PdV forecasts average oil production of 3.1m b/d for this year, with a 400,000 b/d increase in output from its heavy-crude operations at Orinoco. But these figures jar with outside estimates of Venezuelan production. PdV's own growth projections are not shared by industry analysts, which generally put production in the 2.2m-2.6m b/d range. Despite an Opec quota o