Tough talk: from Rafael Ramirez
Caracas wants to boot out US giants
The Venezuelan government wants ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips to exit the country's play - without compensation - as the US supermajors continue to refuse to allow their Orinoco Belt projects to come under state control, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said.
The two US oil giants have refused to fall in line with a law passed by President Hugo Chavez's leftist government forcing multinationals to give at least 60% of the stakes in their Venezuelan operations to the state-controlled PDVSA.
But earlier this week Ramirez said: "We are negotiating with the companies that have not accepted our laws in order to finalise their departure from the country."
Forbes quoted Ramirez, who is also PDVSA's chief, as saying that the era of "oil openness is over", adding that no compensation would be given to the US supermajors.
"We have been very clear since last year: quite simply, it does not interest us to work with companies that do not accept our laws," Ramirez said as he left a Venezuelan parliament debate on energy.
He added that those companies which do work with PDVSA would be allowed to stay in "the biggest oil reserve on the planet" for at least 25 years, the Forbes report said.