Venezuelan oil output 'still low'

President Hugo Chavez has for the first time admitted that Venezuela's oil industry is producing 100,000 barrels a day less than planned. He said investigations into possible sabotage were under way. But he also blamed the state oil company PDVSA. This is the clearest admission so far by the government that it is having difficulties restoring full production. In late 2002 a series of opposition-led protests brought the country's oil industry to a virtual standstill. "We have a little problem," President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday. "But we are overcoming it". He said that in the last three months PDVSA had increased its output, but was still 100,000 barrels short of the amount budgeted.

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