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Venezuela takes over foreign-owned oil projects |
| Home | (Reuters, The Associated Press) - CARACAS, Venezuela: Major international oil companies, with the exception of ConocoPhillips, agreed Wednesday to grant the Venezuelan government majority control over four multibillion-dollar heavy-oil projects in the vast Orinoco reserve. Officials for companies including Chevron, BP, Total and Statoil signed agreements to begin turning over a majority stake of the oil projects in the Orinoco River basin to the state. President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela in February decreed that the projects be converted to joint ventures with a majority held by state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, known as PdVSA, as part of a nationalization process meant to advance his self-styled socialist revolution. |