Venezuela empowers oil minister to reform energy sector

CARACAS: President Nicolas Maduro has decreed extra powers to his oil czar Manuel Quevedo (pictured) to try and halt sliding crude output in crisis-hit Venezuela, which has sunk to its lowest level since the 1950s.

Struggling with a deep economic recession, failed socialist policies, debt default, and US financial sanctions, Venezuela’s crude production slipped to 1.586 million barrels per day in February, according to Opec.

Maduro’s decree, seen by media, gives Quevedo, a major general, powers to “create, annul or modify” deals involving state energy company PDVSA and its subsidiaries. The oil minister is also head of PDVSA.

It was not immediately clear what that might mean for PDVSA’S joint ventures. But Quevedo met late on Friday with some foreign partners including representatives of Total, Statoil, Chevron, Rosneft and China National Petroleum Corp.

In a statement, PDVSA said the new measure would enable a reorganisation of operations and minimization of bureaucracy.

“We are going to work with PDVSA to implement the measures and increase production,” Rosneft representative Pavel Kamenets was quoted as saying in the PDVSA statement.

The decree creates a “special regime” in the sector until December 31, with the possibility of a year’s extension. “The Oil Minister will be able to... establish norms and special contract procedures for products, assets and services,” it said.

One clause ordered all specialized personnel, on national or international assignments, to return to original workplaces.

Socialist leader Maduro has promised a vast anti-corruption purge to cleanse the oil industry of “mafias”.