Venezuela state oil firm's earnings fall 4.3% in 2014

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA's earnings fell 4.3 percent in 2014, it said Monday, reporting drops in production and exports after a year of economic upheaval and sliding crude prices.

PDVSA, which dominates the oil industry in the country estimated to have the world's largest crude reserves, registered earnings of $128.4 billion last year, down from $134.3 billion the year before, it reported on its website.

Production meanwhile fell four percent, to 2.78 million barrels per day, and exports 2.8 percent, to 2.35 million barrels a day, it said.

Venezuela is struggling with a prolonged recession, annual inflation of 68.5 percent and chronic shortages of the panoply of basic goods it relies on oil money to import, from food to medicine to toilet paper.

President Nicolas Maduro's government is strapped for cash in the face of a global supply glut that caused oil prices to collapse by more than 50 percent between June and January.

Oil exports provide more than 96 percent of Venezuela's foreign currency.

Venezuela's average price per barrel of oil in 2014 was $88.42, down nearly 10 percent from 2013.

Since the beginning of the year, the figure has plunged further, to around $45 per barrel.

PDVSA's output has now fallen for three years straight, and exports for the past two years.

The company's debt increased 9.6 percent to $39.9 billion in 2014.

The bad news comes ahead of legislative elections later this year that Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela risks losing to the opposition.

Oil market analyst Luis Oliveros said that could spell more bad news for PDVSA.

"In 2015, with lower (oil) prices and the government needing lots resources because of falling crude and the election year, they'll strip PDVSA of all possible resources," said Oliveros, an economist at Central University of Venezuela.

PDVSA, the engine of the Venezuelan economy, has funded the lavish social programs launched by Maduro's late predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chavez.

But these days it has less cash to pay for the so-called "Bolivarian Revolution." In 2014, it contributed $5.3 billion to social programs for the poor, down from $13 billion.

The hard times have also curbed Venezuela's largesse toward its regional allies.

It exported 15.5 percent less oil last year to Petrocaribe, the 18-member club of countries to which it sells cut-rate crude.