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CARACAS, July 21 (Reuters) - Venezuela is not willing to halt productive operations during contract audits that have led to the arrest of businessmen and officials, and to disputes with customers and partners of state company PDVSA, the country's oil minister said on Friday. Earlier this year, contracts with some crude oil buyers were also temporarily suspended while PDVSA reviewed billions of dollars of late payments and pending invoices. "Our goal is to explore, produce, refine and export every product we can," Oil Minister Pedro Tellechea told journalists on the sidelines of a conference in Caracas. Investigations related to the review of unpaid bills have been transferred to the office of Venezuela's General Attorney, Tellechea said. Tellechea also said the country does not currently have suspended contracts, but did not elaborate on the status of exports.

Persons: Wilmer Ruperti, Pedro Tellechea, Tellechea, Maroil, PDVSA, Deisy Buitrago, Mayela Armas, Vivian Sequera, Marianna Parraga, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Oil, Investigations, Reuters, Thomson Locations: CARACAS, Venezuela, PDVSA, Geneva, Caracas, France, China

HOUSTON/PUNTO FIJO, Venezuela, April 4 (Reuters) - Venezuela's oil exports rose in March to the highest monthly average since August, boosted by a resumption of loadings after an export freeze and by rising cargoes assigned to Chevron Corp (CVX.N), according to documents and shipping data. State oil company PDVSA has reinstated two export contracts after a January freeze by new boss Pedro Tellechea: a medium-term contract with Hangzhou Energy, and another with Portugal-based Adinius Sociedade de Servicios, the documents showed. Oil swap deals with Chevron, Cuba's state company Cubametales and Iran's Naftiran Intertrade Co (NICO) - and most exports of oil byproducts - have continued flowing without interruption during the freeze. Chevron received and exported about 115,000 bpd of Venezuelan heavy crude to the U.S., an increase from about 80,000 bpd in February. Oil exports averaged 774,420 bpd in March, the highest since August, as state company PDVSA reinstated supply contracts that allowed it to ship more crude and fuel in supertankers.

The unpaid invoices originated with dozens of little-known companies acting as middlemen for Venezuela's oil exports since U.S. sanctions in 2020 halted deals with international trading firms and customers. Venezuela's Attorney General's office in October began a probe after oil tankers absconded without full payment to PDVSA. Venezuela's oil ministry and PDVSA did not reply to a request for comment. Maroil boosted Venezuela's petcoke exports following a commercial pact with PDVSA in 2016. In Venezuela, two heavy oil upgrading facilities controlled by PDVSA, Petro San Felix and Petrocedeno, produce and store petcoke.

Venezuela's oil ministry, PDVSA and Maroil did not reply to requests for comment. PETCOKE MOUNTAINSIn Jose, two heavy oil upgrading projects controlled by PDVSA, Petro San Felix and Petrocedeno, produce and store petroleum coke. SANCTION SCRAMBLEIndian firms this year have been big buyers of Venezuelan petcoke as the Asian nation looks for inexpensive fuel to power industries amid high coal prices. read moreShimsupa GmBH, a Germany-headquartered trading firm, has an exclusive arrangement with Maroil to sell Venezuelan petcoke in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the company said. Resellers of Venezuelan petcoke originally supplied by Maroil say the cargoes are free of penalties since, as opposed to PDVSA, Maroil has not been blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury Department.

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