Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez continues to raise the stakes in an escalating campaign to wrest control away from private and foreign oil producers that have played a crucial role in developing the nation's heavy oil bonanza in the Orinoco belt.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said this week that state oil company PDVSA would take stakes of 60% in the four existing projects, up from the current 40%, both in heavy oil production and in project upgraders.
The
