Red belt: Venezuela nationalised projects in its Orinoco heavy oil region earlier this year
Indicted engineer gets Orinoco plant keys
Venezuela has named an engineer indicted for negligent refinery management as the new head of its Petro Anzoategui heavy oil project, which Caracas took over from US supermajor ConocoPhillips in June.
The move has raised concerns about whether state oil company PDVSA has enough qualified workers to run the four multibillion-dollar heavy oil projects in the Orinoco heavy oil belt which Chavez nationalised this year, Reuters reported.
Chavez in July introduced Manuel Medina as president of Petro Anzoategui, previously the Petrozuata joint venture between PDVSA and ConocoPhillips.
The state prosecutor's office in May said it filed criminal charges against Medina and three other employees of Venezuela's El Palito refinery for "negligent embezzlement" and damaging industry operations.
The four employees "fail(ed) to observe procedures established by corporate norms" during a maintenance shutdown in 2003 and 2004, leading to 116 spills in El Palito's alkylation unit between March 2004 and May 2007, the prosecutor's office said.
The state has also filed a civil suit against the four managers that could force them to pay cash compensation to PDVSA for the damage.
A prosecutor's office spokesman told Reuters the case was in the hands of a court that will determine in a preliminary hearing if Medina, formerly an El Palito technical manager, will face trial.
PDVSA spokesmen did not immediately return calls requesting comment.
Industry officials familiar with El Palito and Petro Anzoategui confirmed Medina's move to the Orinoco project.