Venezuela oil exports fall in November-govt data

CARACAS Dec 16 (Reuters) - Venezuela's exports of crude oil and refined products slipped in November, according to data from the OPEC nation's oil ministry.

Total exports of oil and products slipped by 0.8 percent to 2.398 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, down from 2.417 million bpd in October.

Exports of upgraded crude oil were 272,642 bpd for the month, according to the data, well below levels of more than 500,000 bpd seen earlier this year.

State oil firm PDVSA has said the units that upgrade extra heavy crude oil into lighter, exportable crude were hit with unplanned maintenance over recent months. The units were nationalized in 2007.

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Venezuela's oil imports and exports by port:

link.reuters.com/wej37g

Energy ministry's production estimates:

link.reuters.com/vej37g

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Separately, new data released by the ministry shows crude oil production slipped in October to 2.964 million bpd, from 2.979 million bpd in September.

Venezuela's government began releasing the export figures this year as part of efforts to counter lower export and output estimates by many analysts who hold that the nation's oil sector never fully recovered from a strike at state oil company PDVSA from late 2002 to early 2003.

The International Energy Agency and OPEC says output this year has averaged between 2.2 million bpd and 2.3 million bpd.

(Reporting by Matthew Robinson; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)