Posted on 03/06/2003 9:04:52 PM PST by BlackJack
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday lifted force majeure on his country's oil exports after an opposition strike and announced a fiercely nationalistic oil strategy that would shut out "enemies of the nation."
The announcement of the ending of force majeure, invoked when a producer cannot meet its contractual obligations, was the strongest signal yet that the world's No. 5 oil exporter was restoring its petroleum operations.
"We have decided to suspend the force majeure on all of (state oil company) PDVSA's operational activities ... we guarantee operations to the entire world," Chavez said during a ceremony to swear in a new PDVSA management board.
Venezuela declared force majeure soon after the strike, aimed at forcing the leftist leader from office, started on Dec. 2. The stoppage fizzled out by early February and many non-oil sector businesses reopened but the effects have lingered on in the strategic oil sector.
Former paratrooper Chavez said the government would revise all of PDVSA's operations, including all of its contracts and investments, to forge a new-look nationalist oil strategy that would seek to put the interests of the country first.
He made clear that private firms which had supported the crippling two-month opposition strike would be not be allowed to participate in the oil industry in the future.
"We cannot continue playing the innocent and keep on handing over strategic areas to enemies of the country," the populist president said.
He singled out a U.S.-controlled technology company, Intesa -- 60 percent owned by Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) -- which he had previously accused of joining in sabotage of PDVSA's central computer network.
"We will never again hand over the brain center of the company to transnational powers," Chavez said.
His words appeared to signal a strengthening of his government's state-centered oil policy already expressed in a hotly contested oil law passed at the end of 2001. Critics of the law slammed it as hostile to private business and said it would drive off foreign investment.
OPERATIONS BACK TO NORMAL?
Chavez insisted that more than 15,000 PDVSA workers fired for participating in the stoppage would not be allowed to return to their jobs.
Opposition negotiators involved in struggling talks with the government to resolve Venezuela's political crisis have been demanding that the sacked oil workers be reinstated as part of any agreement on elections.
But Chavez, who has condemned the strikers as "terrorists" and "traitors" trying to topple him, ruled this out.
"People are talking about a selective amnesty? Amnesty? It won't be selective or anything else. There will be no forgiveness for anyone. Traitors are traitors. They can't come back and they won't come back," he said.
Chavez, who survived a coup last year, drafted in replacement workers and troops to restart the strike-hit industry, which normally provides half of government revenues. He said oil output had been restored to 2.658 million bpd of oil plus an additional 150,000 bpd of condensates.
South America's largest oil producer had pumped 3.1 million bpd in November, while shipments of crude and refined products were nearly 2.7 million bpd.
Chavez said that exports had returned to normal as foreign clients, who had stayed away from ports due to safety and insurance concerns during the strike, returned to Venezuela.
"All the refineries are reactivated ... departure and arrivals of ships are back to normal," Chavez said, adding that domestic oil inventories had been reduced to five million barrels, half of levels a week ago.
Analysts have been skeptical of the government's upbeat status reports on the oil industry. The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Thursday estimated Venezuela's output would only reach 1.8 million bpd by the end of March.
Rebel PDVSA workers on Wednesday pegged production at 1.1 million bpd.
The loss of Venezuelan exports of crude and products as well as concerns over a potential U.S. attack on the Iraq have helped to lift U.S. oil prices to new post-Gulf war highs of near $40 a barrel in recent weeks.
NEW LOOK FOR PDVSA
Chavez said the new PDVSA board sworn in on Thursday would fit his vision for the firm as a state company subservient to the policies of the Ministry of Energy and Mines. The old PDVSA managers, which he dismissed as elitist "coup-mongering technocrats" had paid no attention to the ministry and laughed at him and his cabinet, he said.
"I am absolutely sure that this board will serve to speed the process of renationalizing and reconsolidating a successful, solid and nationalistic PDVSA in the 21st century," Chavez said.
The previous board, which included many PDVSA career professionals, was fired by Chavez in the early days of the strike. Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez and PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez then initiated a plan to restructure the firm into two operating divisions from the nation's main producing areas in the east and west.
Luis Marin and Felix Rodriguez, managers of the divisions, were named internal directors along with Dester Rodriguez, a military officer.
Aires Barreto, who had previously served as a PDVSA director under Chavez, was appointed as the company's new vice president. Luis Vierma, Nelson Nunez and pro-Chavez union boss Rafael Rosales will serve as external directors. (Additional reporting by Tomas Sarmiento and Pascal Fletcher)
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