Venezuela’s Chavez decrees oil takeover

President Hugo Chavez ordered by decree on Feb. 26 the takeover of oil projects run by foreign oil companies in Venezuela’s Orinoco River region.

Chavez had previously announced the government’s intention to take a majority stake by May 1 in four heavy oil-upgrading projects run by BP PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA.

He said Feb. 26 that he has decreed the nationalizations that will see state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, taking at least a 60 percent stake in the projects.

“The privatization of oil in Venezuela has come to an end,” he said on his weekday radio show. “This marks the true nationalization of oil in Venezuela.”

By May 1, “we will occupy these fields” and have the national flag flying on them, he said. The law is expected to be published soon in the government’s official gazette, and the companies will have four months from then to negotiate terms and conditions with PDVSA to decide whether they will take part in new joint ventures as minority partners, Chavez said.

The Orinoco projects are the only oil-producing operations in the country under private control, which Chavez called “disgraceful.” But he added that Venezuela does not “want the companies to go. ... We just want them to be (minority) partners.”

—The Associated Press