Oil firms reject Venezuela deal
Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips reject nationalisation deal but four others accept.
France‘s Total, Norway‘s Statoil, British Petroleum and US company Chevron signed the agreements.
Takeover
The new accords for the Orinoco mean that PDVSA will double its involvement in the river projects.
“PDVSA has gone from holding an average 39 percent participation to a participation of 78 percent on average,” PDVSA said.
He said Venezuela could reach an agreeable settlement with the two oil companies, without the need for a lawsuit.
Venezuela, Latin America’s only member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC,) hopes to certify by 2008 Orinoco has oil reserves of 1.3 trillion barrels.
Only 20 per cent of the crude reserve can be extracted with current technology, as the fuel is extra-heavy and needs special processing before it can be refined.
Oil companies formerly paid one per cent in royalties for the crude extracted from Orinoco.
As part of the nationalisation drive, royalties have been raised to 33.2 per cent.