08-08-05 Venezuela's state oil firm PdVSA's stake in the new exploration and production joint ventures being formed could reach 80 % but will never be less than 51 %, energy and oil minister and PdVSA president Rafael Ramirez said.
"We will do an evaluation to decide how big our partner's stake will be. What we will value is the investments they have carried out here in order to reach a decision on what will be their participation in the future enterprises. At a minimum we are talking 51 % [for PdVSA under the hydrocarbons law] but it could be 80:20, 70:30 or 60:40," Ramirez said.

The JVs will replace 32 operating agreements with other mainly foreign oil producers, which PdVSA argues are too expensive. To critics who claim he is making previous contractors into owners of Venezuelan oil, the minister said, "The ownership of the hydrocarbons will still be the Republic, that is in the constitution and is not negotiable".
The good news for PdVSA's partners is that investments already made in each field will be recognized as part of the new company's capital, something that should spell relief for companies that have invested about 20 bn bolivares ($ 9.3 mm) digging new wells, for instance.

Even though Ramirez told that he wanted to "clarify" some aspects of the new JVs, a big question remains. Will PdVSA be able to offer oil and natural gas deposits onsite as part of the new JVs' capital or will the oil company have to put up cash?
Internal PdVSA documents indicate that the company is very reluctant to use up its cash for this purpose.