CARACAS, 12 August 2007 — Venezuela will urge the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to maintain existing oil production cuts and keep output levels unchanged, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Friday.
“We believe that the oil cuts must be left in place, and we have carried them out,” Ramirez told reporters at a summit of Caribbean leaders participating in a Venezuelan oil-supply pact called Petrocaribe.
Ramirez said Venezuela would make its proposal when the OPEC meets in late September.
He also said Venezuela continues talks with foreign oil companies involved in extracting heavy crude in the Orinoco River basin that have been forced to cede majority control.
President Hugo Chavez’s government took over operational control of oil fields in the eastern Orinoco on May 1 and is now in the process of forming new joint ventures with companies including US-based Chevron Corp., Britain’s BP PLC, France’s Total SA and Norway’s Statoil ASA.
“We are ready to create the new mixed companies,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez said no decision has been made as to how state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA plans to pay the companies for their investments.
He added that talks are also continuing with Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips, which balked in June as other companies signed deals agreeing to participate under the new, tougher terms.
Meanwhile, Argentina and Venezuela pledged new oil and natural gas investments on Friday in their neighbor and leftist ally Bolivia, which is seeking new investors after nationalizing its energy sector last year.
Leaders from the three countries met in Tarija, Bolivia’s natural gas capital, where President Nestor Kirchner said Argentina would give Bolivia soft loans for a $450 million processing plant to ship more natural gas to Argentina.
Bolivia and Venezuela launched an ambitious energy alliance earlier in the day, announcing $600 million in oil exploration by a new binational company, YPFB-Petroandina.
In Tarija, President Evo Morales said, as he has before, that companies that do not meet investment commitments will be thrown out of Bolivia, and Kirchner said Argentina would step in.
“My dear Evo, my telephone is waiting for your call. If these businessmen don’t invest, just pick up the phone and we Argentines are going to come invest with you,” Kirchner said.
