Venezuela takes control of oil fields

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Venezuela takes control of oil fields

Business Briefcase

ARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's state oil company said yesterday it has successfully signed agreements to bring all 32 privately operated oil fields under government control after reaching a deal with Spanish-Argentine oil company Repsol YPF.

The Venezuelan government had set a Dec. 31 deadline for all private companies holding contracts to independently pump oil to agree to new joint ventures that will be majority-owned by the state oil company.

The 15,000 barrel-a-day Quiamare-La Ceiba oil field, however, was the only one not to have submitted to the contract changes due to objections by Exxon Mobil Corp., which jointly operates the field with Repsol.

Repsol has acquired Exxon's 25 per cent stake in the field and agreed to convert its operating agreement into a joint venture, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, said in a statement. The company did not provide a cash value for the deal.

The government had threatened to reclaim oil fields from companies that refused to sign the so-called transitional joint-venture agreements, which will later be converted into permanent agreements with PDVSA.

Of 22 companies that held operating agreements, Chevron Corp., BP PLC, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Brazil's state oil company Petrobras S.A. were among those that signed earlier.

The state could take as much as a 90 per cent stake in the new ventures. The amount the private companies have invested in the fields will determine the amount of control they have, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has said. The contract changes are part of a wider strategy by President Hugo Chavez's administration to exert more control over the oil industry. In less than four years, his government has sharply raised taxes and royalties charged to foreign oil companies and demanded $3 billion US in unpaid taxes.

Pizza magnate donates $20M

TORONTO (CP) - The founder of the Pizza Pizza restaurant chain has quietly given $20 million to charity, delivering the news in a year-end filing that showed the donation knocked his private company into a net loss.

Michael Overs set up the Tesari Charitable Foundation in September but there was no announcement because the 66-year-old Toronto resident is "a very private person," Curt Feltner, chief financial officer of Pizza Pizza Ltd., said yesterday in explaining the unusual earnings statement.

"He just does not like to make major announcements about his personal givings."

Feltner added that Pizza Pizza Ltd. didn't have staff to deal with a crush of calls from worthy causes clamouring for a slice of the foundation's funds. "The foundation is in the gift-giving phase now, but selectively," Feltner said, adding that it will concentrate on the health and vocational training fields.