Since June, Canadian electricity company New Brunswick Power has been receiving from state-run oil holding Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) fuel oil instead of orimulsion, with no additional charges, Dow Jones sources said.

Pdvsa advised this week that production of the fuel invented by subsidiary Intevep will stop completely by the end of 2006. However, the expiration of an agreement to supply 810,000 tons annually of orimulsion to feed the firm facilities in Dalhousie is at least five years away.

Such deals suggest that Pdvsa has taken on the cost of replacing orimulsion, a fuel manufactured from bitumen, with fuel oil, another byproduct with twice the value. New Brunswick expects the supply not to stop as long as the agreement is effective.