Only 42.7% of petrodollars sold to Venezuela's Central Bank

El Universal: Foreign exchange income and outlays at the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) and the balance of payments show that in the first quarter of 2010 state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) transferred $6.68 billion to the BCV, only 42.7% of Venezuelan oil revenues.

This declining trend dates back to June 2005, when a legal reform changed Venezuela's financial architecture. Since then, PDVSA is not obliged to transfer all the dollars it gets from oil sales to the BCV.

Orlando Ochoa, an economist and professor with the Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB), says that the reduced amount of US dollars received by the Central Bank of Venezuela has forced the government to slow down the authorization of foreign exchange payments by the Foreign Exchange Administration Commission (CADIVI).

Based on official data, Ochoa said that BCV's foreign exchange operating reserves amount to $8.99 billion dollars, an amount that "is not enough to hand over the US dollars authorized by CADIVI, inject funds to the National Development Fund (Fonden) and defend the band system that will be implemented to control the (parallel) foreign exchange market."

The Venezuelan economist highlighted another important factor. Official figures show that PDVSA's accounts receivable amount to $16.48 billion. "At least 95% of PDVSA's accounts receivable relate to oil delivered to ALBA and Petrocaribe member countries such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic," said Ochoa.

PDVSA's accounts receivable have increased significantly. In the first quarter of 2007, they totaled $7.15 billion. This shows that PDVSA's accounts receivable soared 130% in three years.