PdV rolls out new joint venture presidents

Venezuela's state-owned PdV rolled out the appointment of up to 26 new presidents of joint ventures that are mostly inactive.

The appointments, some of whom may have been carryovers, are the latest manifestation of an industry shake-up led by new acting oil minister Tareck El Aissami.

El Aissami headed a presidential restructuring commission that kicked off in February. The commission's co-chair was Asdrubal Chavez, who is now acting PdV chief executive. Preliminary recommendations from the commission were leaked last week.

The new joint venture presidents form part of a reorganization of CVP, PdV's joint venture subsidiary, according to internal documents obtained by Argus.

The appointments sweep across PdV's partnerships, ranging from the prominent PetroPiar and PetroBoscan projects with minority shareholder Chevron, to obscure and dormant ventures such as PetroWayuu and PetroCumarebo.

El Aissami's most concrete action so far is a downstream initiative to repair the 305,000 b/d Cardon refinery, using parts, catalyst and technicians from Iran and China.

PdV blames its deteriorated infrastructure and operations on US sanctions.

Venezuela's oil production and refining have suffered from years of underinvestment, a lack of maintenance, power cuts, equipment theft and labor flight.

By Patricia Garip