Chavez Claims State Control of Key Oil Projects

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claimed “total control” of four oil ventures run by foreign companies — a move that would threaten investments in those projects by U.S. oil giants Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp. and others.

“We have fixed it already,” Chavez told reporters Friday at a meeting of European Union and South American leaders in Vienna. “We have control over the Faja,” he said, referring to the region also known as the Orinoco Belt, where the ventures pump 600,000 barrels a day of the country’s extra-heavy, or viscous, oil.

As word of Chavez’s declaration spread, experts reacted with concern but not surprise.

“It looks like he’s doing the same thing that he did to several other joint ventures,” said James Williams, an energy economist based in London, Ark. “And if he said it’s a done deal, then it’s a done deal.”

Los Angeles Times