Spanish:
 
|
Venezuela plans to push harder on oil companies
Venezuela's Exxon Mobil operations
By Elio Ohep
Petroleumworld
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 04 24 06
Venezuela's oil minister and Venezuela's oil company president Rafael Ramirez said Sunday that Venezuela will compensate oil majors ENI and Total for the nationalization of the fields they refused to agree to the government demands for higher taxes and increased control over operations.The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is planning a new taxes on foreign oil companies and forcing them to give the majority stake in their heavy oil fields and operations, taking a major step toward nationalizing the oil industry.
In an interview with Dow Jones News wires during the 10th International Energy Forum, Ramirez, said the government would "recognize the investment they made in the contract", but said that doesn't mean they will be compensated.
Asked whether they would be compensated for their investment on the fields, Ramirez said "No, it is finished."Last year Venezuela demanded that private oil firms re-negotiate operating contracts for 32 fields, installing PDVSA as the majority shareholder. The government also, presented a hefty tax bill on unpaid back takes. Eni and Total refuse to comply as the date line ended early this month.
In the 1990s ENI won an operating contract for the 65,000 barrel a day Dacion field, while Total won a contract for the 30,000 barrels a day Jusepin field. Both were seized earlier this month.
Exxon mobil, decided last December to sell its stake in one field undergoing the contract changes to its partner Repsol YPF.
Venezuela Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said Wednesday, March 29, on an interview with the government run TV station, that Exxon Mobil was no longer welcome in the country and must leave.
Ramirez explained that there was not room in Venezuela to a company that did not want to follow the Government policies, and Exxon Mobil has resisted tax increases and contract changes that are part of the new Venezuela government oil policies.
On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Venezuelan Congress is considering sharply raising taxes and royalties on foreign companies' operations in the Orinoco River basin, where it would rise royalties to 30 percent from the current 16.7 percent and taxes would jump to 50 percent from 34 percent.
The WSJ pointed out that Chavez also wants to seize majority control of the four Orinoco Faja Basin projects and force private companies who run them to accept a minority stake, citing a top executive at PDVSA.
On Saturday, Eulogio del Pino, PDVSA's vice president and in charge of all the third party business, said to the local News daily El Universal "We would like all of the Orinoco faja associations to migrate to mixed companies."
Mixed company means the government owns 51 percent of the mix company.
The paper said the stakes were high because Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, holds in the Orinoco Faja Basin the world's biggest oil reserves outside the Middle East and is the third-biggest supplier of crude to the United States.The paper added that the Orinoco Faja Basin plan mirrors the terms of the recent takeover by PDVSA of some 32 smaller conventional oil-production projects previously run by private companies and would eliminate the country's remaining privately managed oil fields.
The paper said action could come as soon as this week, when the country's lawmakers are scheduled to review the results of a congressional investigation into the country's decision in the 1990s to open up parts of the oil industry to private investment.
Major oil companies like Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Total have invested billions of dollars there to turn the Orinoco's Faja basin's extra heavy oil into some 600,000 barrels a day of lighter, synthetic crude said.- By Elio Ohep, editor@petroleumworld.com, 58 412 996 3730, Caracas.
Petroleumworld News 04 24 06
Copyright © 1999-2006 Petroleumworld. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels