Venezuela Seeks Stake in Orinoco Projects

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela seeks up to a 60 percent stake in four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin where it is partnered with companies like Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, a state oil company official said Wednesday.

“We are willing to go to 60 percent,” said Eulogio del Pino, a director at Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, who oversees contracts with foreign oil companies.

PDVSA currently holds minority stakes ranging from 30 percent to 49.9 percent in partnerships upgrading heavy oil with BP PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips, France’s Total SA and Norway’s Statoil ASA.

The government said earlier that it planned to eventually take a controlling stake in those operations but had not specified how much control it sought.

The Orinoco projects develop what Venezuela says are some of the largest untapped oil reserves in the world.

President Hugo Chavez’s administration has sought a larger share of profits from the industry amid surging oil prices.

It has already taken as much as 80 percent control of other oil fields across the country that were previously run by private companies under contract.