Venezuela's PDVSA to install generators for Chevron oilfields after blackouts

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA said on Friday it would install 20 generators to make a crude project partly owned by Chevron “independent” of the national grid, after a wave of blackouts crippled crude production in the OPEC nation. In a statement, the company said the generators had a total capacity of 50 megawatts and would “increase the stability of (electricity) service for the extraction of daily barrels” at fields operated by Petroboscan, a joint venture between PDVSA and Chevron, which owns a 39 percent stake, in western Venezuela.

PDVSA said it expected the generators at the Zulia 9 substation would be installed by the end of May. The South American country’s oil output fell to under 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, a drop of almost 500,000 bpd from the prior month due to the blackouts and the impact of U.S. sanctions. Most of PDVSA’s operations depend on electricity supply from the national grid. Last week, PDVSA said it had activated a generator that would allow for an increase in crude output at the Petroindependencia project in the heavy crude Orinoco belt, another PDVSA-Chevron joint venture. On Friday, PDVSA added that it would install a 32-megawatt turbine at the Punta Gorda electric plant in Cabimas, which it said would stabilize electricity supply to oil production in Maracaibo Lake and along the eastern coast of the lack.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-oil/venezuelas-pdvsa-to-install-generators-for-chevron-oilfields-after-blackouts-idUSKCN1S9259

Puerto Rico announces deal to restructure power authority debt

SAN JUAN (Reuters) - Puerto Rico’s power utility struck a deal with a group of creditors that seeks to allow the bankrupt U.S. commonwealth to restructure more than $8 billion of bonds, according to an announcement by government authorities on Friday. A group of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) bondholders, bond insurer Assured Guaranty Corp, along with the island’s government and federally created financial oversight board, reached a restructuring support agreement that would reduce the utility’s debt by up to 32.5 percent.

The move paves the way for a plan of adjustment for PREPA, which filed for a form of bankruptcy in July 2017 after a previous restructuring deal fell apart. The latest agreement, which requires support from at least 67 percent of voting bondholders to materialize, would shed about $3 billion in debt service payments over the next decade. The deal also requires the approval of a U.S. judge hearing Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy cases, as well as legislative action.

Under the agreement, investors will exchange their PREPA bonds at 67.5 cents on the dollar for new Tranche A bonds and 10 cents on the dollar for new Tranche B bonds. The latter would be contingent on full payment of Tranche A bonds and future electricity demand on the island. PREPA will pay off the new bonds through a special charge levied on its customers. The new charge starts at approximately 1 cent per kilowatt hour prior to the deal’s closing, increasing to some 2.768 cents per kilowatt hour upon closing and gradually increasing to approximately 4.552 cents per kilowatt hour during the expected 40-year lifespan of the bonds. The deal still lacks the support of other PREPA creditors, most notably bond insurer National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. A spokesman for National declined to comment.

National Public Finance filed an objection last month when a deal in principle was announced, saying that “until very recently” it was excluded from negotiations even though it is PREPA’s largest creditor. National has also asked the court to appoint a receiver for PREPA, support among other creditor remains unclear following Friday’s announcement. According to government and board officials, the privatization of PREPA is under way, with transmission and distribution contracts with private companies expected to be in place by the second quarter of 2020.

“Now with this agreement we take a monumental step to provide for the restructuring of the debts and obligations of PREPA and finally conclude the bankruptcy process,” Governor Ricardo Rossello said in a statement. If approved in federal court, PREPA’s restructuring would mark the third major deal in Puerto Rico’s efforts to restructure about $120 billion of debt and pension obligations. Deals involving the island’s sales tax-backed bonds and Government Development Bank have been approved by U.S. Judge Laura Taylor Swain. PREPA’s financial and operational problems were compounded by Hurricane Maria, which slammed into the island in September 2017, decimating an electric grid already struggling due to poor rate collection, heavy management turnover and lack of maintenance.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-puertorico-prepa/puerto-rico-announces-deal-to-restructure-power-authority-debt-idUSKCN1SA026?il=0

U.S. intelligence on Venezuela 'very good,' acting defense chief says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan dismissed concerns about a potential intelligence failure on Venezuela like the one that preceded the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, and said top U.S. officials had held talks at the Pentagon on Friday. President Donald Trump’s strategy on Venezuela has come under growing scrutiny as President Nicolas Maduro remains in power, raising questions about the way ahead for opposition leader Juan Guaido, who the United States and some 50 countries recognize as the legitimate head of state.

U.S. officials, including National Security Adviser John Bolton, had expected broader defections from the Venezuelan military in support of Guaido after he called on the armed forces to help oust Maduro on Tuesday. “I don’t feel like we have an intelligence gap. I think we have very good reporting,” Shanahan told reporters, when asked about comparisons to gaps in intelligence that preceded the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. His remarks followed a meeting at the Pentagon that included Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Navy Admiral Craig Faller, who oversees U.S. forces in Latin America.

“We have multiple sources that we constantly sample, and then we have all sorts of other ways of doing collection … I feel very confident in the quality and the accuracy of the information that we are getting,” he said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-usa-intelligence/u-s-intelligence-on-venezuela-very-good-acting-defense-chief-says-idUSKCN1S91NC?il=0

Indeed, why did they want that to happen, is the question…what were they trying to hide?

Canada vows to defends its business in Cuba as U.S. opens way for lawsuits

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada vowed on Friday to defend its businesses operating in Cuba after U.S. President Donald Trump lifted a ban on American citizens filing lawsuits against investors working on the island nation. “The Government of Canada will always defend Canadians and Canadian businesses conducting legitimate trade and investment with Cuba, and is reviewing all options in response to the U.S. decision,” a foreign ministry statement said. “Canada will also continue to work with our international partners, including the EU, to stand up for our businesses,” it added.

The U.S. will allow legal action against foreign companies that have used properties seized by Cuba’s Communist government since the 1959 revolution. European and Canadian companies are among the main foreign investors in Cuba. Earlier this week, the EU said it could take the United States to the World Trade Organization or use retaliatory sanctions to protect its companies. Canada also said its Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act can be used to file suits in Canadian courts that “will allow Canadians to recover any amounts that have been obtained against them, including legal expenses, and losses or damages incurred,” the statement said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cuba-canada/canada-vows-to-defends-its-business-in-cuba-as-u-s-opens-way-for-lawsuits-idUSKCN1S924V?il=0

Boeing 737 slides off runway into Florida river, 21 hurt

(Reuters) - A Boeing jetliner with 143 people aboard from the U.S. outpost at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, slid off a runway into a shallow river in Jacksonville, Florida, on Friday while attempting to land at a military base there during a thunderstorm, injuring 21 people. There were no reports of fatalities or critical injuries. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said on Twitter that all 21 of the injured were taken to a hospital, where they were listed in good condition.

The plane, a chartered Boeing 737-800 arriving from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba with 136 passengers and seven crew members, crashed into the St. Johns river at the end of the runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville at about 9:40 p.m. local time, a spokesman for the Florida air base said. “The plane was not submerged. Every person is alive and accounted for,” the sheriff’s office said on Twitter. The sheriff’s tweet was accompanied by two photographs showing the plane, bearing the logo of Miami Air International, resting in shallow water and fully intact. The mayor of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry, said on Twitter that U.S. President Donald Trump had called him to offer help. “No fatalities reported. We are all in this together,” Curry said in a separate tweet.

A passenger on board the plane, attorney Cheryl Bormann, told CNN in an interview that the flight, which had been four hours late in departing, made a “really hard landing” in Jacksonville amid thunder and lightning. “We came down, the plane literally hit the ground and bounced. It was clear the pilot did not have total control of the plane. It bounced again,” she said, adding that the experience was “terrifying.” Bormann said she hit her head on a plastic tray on the seat in front of her as the plane veered sideways and off the runway. “We were in the water, we couldn’t tell where we were, whether it was a river or an ocean.” The military base is situated on the western bank of the St. Johns River about 8 miles south of central Jacksonville, in the northeastern corner of Florida about 350 miles north of Miami. Bormann described emerging from the plane onto the wing as oxygen masks deployed and smelling the jet fuel that she said was apparently leaking into the water. Bormann, from Chicago, said that most of the passengers were connected to the military and helped each other out of their seats and onto a wing, where they were assisted after some time into a raft.

Miami Air International is a charter airline operating a fleet of the Boeing 737-800, different from the 737 MAX 8 aircraft that has been grounded following two fatal crashes involving that plane. Representatives for the airline could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters on Friday evening. The charter company is contracted by the military for its twice-weekly “rotator” roundtrip service between the U.S. mainland and Guantanamo Bay, said Bill Dougherty, a spokesman for the Jacksonville base. It flies every Tuesday and Friday from the Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia to the Jacksonville air station and on to Cuba. It then flies back to Virginia with a stop again at Jacksonville, he said. The rotator service typically flies military personnel, family members, contractors and other civilians traveling from the United States to Guantanamo Bay. But officials said the mix of civilians and military personnel on the plane that crash-landed was not immediately known. A Boeing spokesman said that the company was aware of the incident and was gathering information.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-airplane-river/boeing-737-slides-off-runway-into-florida-river-21-hurt-idUSKCN1SA036

>>6409896

>Boeing 737 slides off runway into Florida river, 21 hurt

Boeing 737 With 143 on Board Skids on Runway, Slides into Florida River, 21 Injured Video..44 seconds.