Chavez to Give Latin Countries Priority in Developing Heavy Oil

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he will give priority in developing the country’s heavy oil reserves in the Orinoco belt to companies in Latin America and the Caribbean and not the U.S.

Chavez, who offered blocks last week to Uruguay’s state oil company and Rio de Janeiro-based Petroleo Brasileiro SA, has said the Orinoco Faja or oil belt may hold as much as 300 billion barrels of oil.

“The oil from the Faja won’t be for Mr. Danger,” Chavez said during a three-and-a-half hour televised address to a youth conference in Caracas, in a reference to U.S. President George W. Bush. “In the first place oil will be for the Venezuelan people, and then the people of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Bloomberg