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Conoco, Chevron agree to handover Orinoco majority stake
Platts
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 03 09 07
ConocoPhillips and Chevron have agreed to give up majority control of heavy
oil upgrading projects in the Orinoco belt, Eulogio Del Pino, director at
Venezuela's PDVSA, said in a statement Thursday.The companies have formed "transition committees" with PDVSA to oversee
the handover of operations and to convert the projects into new joint ventures
in which the state company will have at least a 60% stake, Del Pino said.
ConocoPhillips currently has a majority stake in the Petrozuata venture, and
has participation along with Chevron in the Ameriven venture.President Hugo Chavez passed a law by decree in late February ordering
PDVSA to take a majority stake in the ventures. Del Pino said in the statement
that the committees "will have the responsibility to work arduously and
fulfill the timetable of activities so that by May 1, the nationalization of
these businesses is completed and the operations of these foreign companies
are transferred to the Venezuelan state."ExxonMobil said on Monday that it intended to hand over majority stake
of its Cerro Negro heavy oil project. The statement said that Roy Lyons,
president of ConocoPhillips Venezuela "manifested his willingness to
collaborate" with the transition body. It also cited Ali Moshiri, president of
Chevron Latin America, saying that transition to a joint venture is not new
for Chevron in Venezuela since it converted its operating service agreement at
the Boscan field to a joint venture with PDVSA last year.ConocoPhillips also set up a transition committee for its risksharing
agreement at the Corocoro field in the Gulf of Paria, the statement said.
PDVSA expects production of 30,000 b/d to begin at the field in June 2007 and
expects to install a platform by the third quarter of 2008 that will raise
output to 70,000 b/d, it said. The Corocoro field was named in Chavez's decree
along with PDVSA's risksharing agreement with ExxonMobil for the La Ceiba
field.For more news, request a free trial to Platts Oilgram News at
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PLATTS 08 03 07
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