Venezuela looks at privatization contract
Venezuela’s oil minister has given lawmakers a proposal to turn privately run oil fields into partnerships controlled by the South American country’s state-run oil company.
The energy and oil minister announced that Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez gave the government’s proposal for a new contract to lawmakers on March 16 and said that ministry officials planned to release details of the document in the coming days.
Nancy Perez, vice president of the National Assembly’s energy committee, said Ramirez must personally deliver the contract model to the committee before it can begin formal discussions.
A year ago, Venezuela announced that oil firms operating 32 oil fields under contract must become minority shareholders in new “mixed companies” controlled by the state-run oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA. Congress must approve general guidelines for the new ventures.
Ramirez has said the National Assembly, which is controlled by political parties that support President Hugo Chavez, must modify several articles in the 2001 Hydrocarbons Law before creating the so-called “mixed companies.”
The Chavez administration plans to group the 32 fields into 19 separate companies. PDVSA would have stakes of 60 percent or more in each venture, according to Ramirez.
The original contracts were signed during three licensing rounds in the 1990s under a previous, more business-friendly government. The Chavez administration claims the previous terms violated Venezuelan because they gave private companies preferential tax rates.
—The Associated Press
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