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Venezuela: The transformation of risk & profit sharing E&P contracts "still pending"
AP Photo/Ronald Zak
Minister of Energy and Petroleum of Venezuela, Rafael Ramirez talks to journalists during the meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at the OPEC's headquarters in Vienna, Monday, Sept. 11, 2006.
By Elio Ohep
Petroleumworld
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 09 13 06
Rafael Ramirez Venezuela's oil minister and Venezuela's oil company president said Tuesday, the transformation of "conventional oil exploration and production projects" into mixed companies controlled by the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA is "still pending."Corocoro, Golfo de Paria Este and La Ceiba risk and profit sharing exploration contracts is where Venezuela will seek a majority stake in the projects to obtain total control of Venezuela's' oil resources, Ramirez said.
"Once we complete that, we'll have accomplished our purpose of creating a new petroleum regime" that will reflect Venezuela's "oil sovereignty," Ramirez added.
The three high risk exploration contracts - Corocoro, Golfo de Paria Este and La Ceiba - were signed in 1997, before the present government administration.
ConocoPhillips, Eni, ExxonMobil and Petro-Canada are the principal companies that will have to sell the majority stakes in the risk and profit sharing projects.
Ramirez didn't specify a time frame.
Venezuela, has already transformed operating service contracts into PDVSA -controlled joint ventures and before the end of the year is to have a majority stake in four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco Belt, Ramirez told reporters on Monday.
However, Ramirez said that private foreign investment still has a place in Venezuela, "Our oil sovereignty doesn't exclude the presence of private capital, as long as they respect our sovereign rights," he said. "We ask them to abstain from promoting the policies of consuming countries that have a yearning for their colonial or imperial past."
- Elio Ohep, editor@petroleumworld.com, 58 412 996 3730, Caracas-Venezuela
Petroleumworld 12 09 06
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