Chavez Seizes Private Oil Resources

Private oil companies had run 32 oil fields in Venezuela independently under contract with the government. But Venezuela demanded last year those contracts be changed into so-called "mixed company" joint ventures that give PDVSA a minimum 60-percent stake.
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Sounds fair, it is their oil and they should be getting money for it.
 
That should have been in the contract before being signed. What it is is Venezuela puting the private oil fields under the control of the government.
I don't care for the politics of either Spain or France but what is fair? If you had a water well on your property for your house how would you like it if the state or county came in and took it over and demanded you give up 60% of what is pumped out of the ground...
 
It'll be interesting to see what this does to the value of the ChevronTexaco stock I own.
 
What's fair?

Under the old contracts, PDVSA was forced to buy oil from the companies at five times the cost of extraction.
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That isn't.

I do agree that the contracts shouldn't have been signed under those terms in the first place. But, as usual, they might have been signed by corrupt politics.
 
Luis G said:
Sounds fair, it is their oil and they should be getting money for it.
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I miussed something...whose oil is it...Venezuela or the private companies?
 
I 'believe' it's Venezuela's.

Unless I don't have reading comprehension skills anymore of course, which is entirely possible.
 
If so, is the state now in the oil drilling & refinement business? The private organizations were leasing the land or did they own it-at which time the oil should be theirs.

NM...just read the article. Venezuela changed the terms of the contract in mid flight & shoved the interested parties out the door. I hope they follow Mugabes lead...get something for nothing then screw it up.
 
Gonz said:
If so, is the state now in the oil drilling & refinement business? The private organizations were leasing the land or did they own it-at which time the oil should be theirs.

NM...just read the article. Venezuela changed the terms of the contract in mid flight & shoved the interested parties out the door. I hope they follow Mugabes lead...get something for nothing then screw it up.
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I suppose Venezuela is like Mexico regarding natural resources. You might own the land, but any valuable natural resources in it are goverment property.
 
Yes and no. You propose the goverment to invest in the mine in exchange of some profit, and that's as far as you'll get.

I think the venezuelan situation is similar to that, except that the contracts shouldn't have been signed in the first place. But as I said, they were probably agreed by corrupt politicians.
 
Gonz, you might have heard of a term in the US called mineral rights. When you buy land, you have to get the mineral rights too. If you don't, then you only own the surface, not what's underneath.
 
Any way you look at it, it the ownership of the oil assets are going to depend on how the contract was written. Without actually reading that document, all this is sheer speculation.
 
Professur said:
Gonz, you might have heard of a term in the US called mineral rights. When you buy land, you have to get the mineral rights too. If you don't, then you only own the surface, not what's underneath.
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Unless those rights have been previoulsy transferred (which needs to be disclosed) US Property Rights includes mineral rights. That is, recognizing differing state laws, a general rule. The deed will state whether you retain ownership or it has been sold/leased.
 
A perfect example of why that country is floundering
in poverty,
prompting its citizens to seek opportunity encima del norte.

On of my fav right wing wacko radio hosts pointed out that
if mess-co would properly exploit their natural resources
they’d be rich like tha A-Rabs.

But alas communism never works, everywhere its tried!
 
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