CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela is preparing to nationalize petrochemical projects and yesterday said it seized property of a U.S. gas service company as President Hugo Chavez steps up a drive to put key industries in state hands.
The national assembly is currently reading a proposed law to put all petrochemical activity under state control, affecting Japanese and U.S. companies and extending the list of companies in the oil sector already in government hands.
Venezuela already runs a large petrochemical company Pequiven, owned by state oil company PDVSA. The government is working with Brasil’s Braskem to build a chemical plant in Venezuela and another in the northeastern Brazilian city of Salvador.
Separately, state oil company PDVSA said it had taken control of five gas plants belonging to oil and gas service company Exterran along with its administrative headquarters in the OPEC member nation.
PDVSA said 45 percent of the country’s gas compression equipment was now in government hands. It said Exterran’s seized plants represented 3 percent of Venezuela’s gas capacity.
“With the takeover of five more plants in the eastern region that produce about 224 million cubic feet of gas and 35,000 barrels of oil per day, we are continuing the plan to renationalize activities connected with compression of gas,” said PDVSA executive Pedro Coronil in a statement.
