CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez announced that Venezuela's state oil company will increase its crude output by 30,000 barrels a day in honor of his 57th birthday on Thursday. It's a symbolic increase for a country that claims to produce about three million barrels of oil a day. But Chavez told state television on Wednesday that it's part of a longer-term upward trend and that within a few years Venezuela will boost its output to four million barrels a day.
Chavez said workers of the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA will begin producing an additional 30,000 barrels a day in the eastern Orinoco River basin, as a "gift" in honor of his birthday. In the Orinoco region, Chavez said, "we're already at more than a million barrels" a day. In its latest figures released this month, OPEC recognised Venezuela as the country with the biggest proven oil reserves in the world, saying that with 296.5 billion barrels it now surpasses Saudi Arabia. The state oil company has set a goal of producing 4.15 million barrels of crude a day in 2015. (AP)