Chevron to pay Venezuela $50.2 mln tax

[Judi Lynn]

Chevron to pay Venezuela $50.2 mln tax
Sat Apr 1, 2006 11:28 AM GMT
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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - U.S. oil major Chevron will pay $50.2 million in back taxes, fines and interest to the Venezuelan government, the nation's tax chief said on Friday.

"Chevron will pay today," Jose Vielma, superintendent of Venezuela's Seniat tax agency, told reporters.

Venezuela's government has hit foreign and private companies operating in Venezuela with back tax payments for operations between 2001 and 2004.
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~~~~ link ~~~~

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Press/CARACAS, Venezuela
By JORGE RUEDA
Associated Press Writer

Venezuela signs deals with oil companies

MAR. 31 11:53 P.M. ET President Hugo Chavez said 17 Venezuelan and foreign companies agreed on Friday to turn privately run oil fields into joint ventures controlled by the country's state oil company.

Under the new joint ventures, state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, will hold a minimum 60 percent stake in the new partnerships, splitting oil revenues with the private companies.

The new pacts that convert 32 privately run oil fields into 30 joint ventures are replacing old agreements that gave private companies a bigger share.

"Now we are associates and this commits us much more, it's a more solid framework, it's no longer a contract for doing a service, it's a strategic alliance," Chavez told representatives of the companies at the signing ceremony at the presidential palace.
(snip/...)

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8GN0EK01.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db

[cleofus1]

1. holy toledo

did the oil companies blink...or am i just dreaming?

[Warpy]

2. They blinked

They knew this was the only way to get out of this without having those oil fields nationalized. This agreement will cover the companies smart enough to sign it for a very long time.

Chavez is one smart dude.

[rfranklin]

3. A drop in the proverbial bucket...

What wa their quarterly profit? About $50 BILLION!

[Jayhawk Lib]

6. Yes it is a drop in the bucket

when you consider the fact that that cost will just be passed
on to us consumers. 

YOW!!!They are really sticking it to them!:sarcasm:

[cleofus1]

8. it's their oil

they can set the price or the conditions on which it is develeoped...free markets and all...

[IndianaGreen]

12. America's consumer society is build on the backs of the workers

of the world, and the stealing of their resources. This is why we have such a large military, it isn't to protect the American people, but to protect the profits of the corporations. We have yet to pay the true costs of energy!

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. So the Oil Companies

"pass on the cost" without good reason (given their enormous profits), and it is still Chavez who is the bad guy?

Some people love getting ass-raped so much they make up fairy tales to condemn every one but the rapist.

[Jayhawk Lib]

15. It is not a fairy tale.

The tax that Chavez puts on the oil companies is a cost of doing business for the oil company. That cost gets passed down to the consumer. I do not like it but it is a fundamental fact of economics.

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. It is indeed a fairy tale

Only the slyest capitalist could convince people that robbing them blind is a "fundamental fact of economics." Even within the discourse of economics, there is absolutely no reason to "pass on" near negligible costs to the consumer when you're posting record profits. You could just as easily deduct those costs from your record profits and take an ever-so-slightly more modest profit. But, of course, the oil companies operate in near cartel conditions and demand is damn near inelastic, so they can do whatever they damn well please. But we need not be mystified by the silly notion that costs necessarily must be passed on to the consumer. It's a lie. If margins are slim and you're operating in a competitive market near equilibrium, then perhaps "passing on costs" can be justified, but it would also have its potential downside of reducing demand. The idea that costs must be passed on in every case is a mystification for outright greed, and has nothing to do with economics.

[Jayhawk Lib]

29. They could deduct the costs

from record profits but they won't. It will be passed down. In all reality Chavez is gouging them also.

The only thing that is going to get us to use less oil is higher prices. We need to use less on account of peak oil and global warming.

[alcibiades_mystery]

33. So it's not a fundamental fact of economics

It is a statement about their greed. Please explain, also, how "in all reality Chavez is gouging them also"? How so?

[Jayhawk Lib]

35. If Chavez is not gouging the oil companies

then the oil companies are not gouging. I really have no problem myself with what the oil companies are making. I really have no problem with Chavez taxing them what he is. I do not own a drop of oil and I am glad that they are producing energy us.

Venezuela and the oil companies do not owe me a thing. I am glad that they are there and producing oil for us to use...

I would be interested in what you would consider gouging and greed.

To my way of thinking there is no such thing as gouging and greed is what greases the wheel of opportunity and prosperity. Flame me if you wish but that is the way that I feel.

[alcibiades_mystery]

36. I'm not gonna flame you

I think it's sufficient to say that that is utter ideological mystification, although it's not that uncommon in hardline conservative and libertarian circles. Fine, greed is good. Whatever. That's just the "way you feel"

As far as gouging, there are plenty of definitions around for you to look up. Your philosophy seems that there can never be gouging, because what the market will bear, the market will bear, ta da. This is a mystification of market values that assume market freedom, but we're hardly in that situation.

[1932]

38. *****

thanks again

[1932]

37. that's a five-star post

thank you!

[MrPrax]

4. Viva Chavez!!

Good to see a politicians take the public's side once in awhile--imagine if other jurisdictions started to 'nationalize' this limited commodity for the good of their people, their economies and their national debts.

[Jayhawk Lib]

16. It is the consumer , public citizen

that is going to pay that tax. That tax is going to be passed down to us the consumer. Yes Viva Chavez!!

[MrPrax]

19. LOL...

OH yeah...well then maybe 'public citizen' should take advantage of all that free oil and gas Veneuzala is willing to let 'public citizens' in America have...

OR MAYBE--you should question American oil companies, like Chavez is doing, rather than bitchin' about 'tax'.

[Jayhawk Lib]

21. Are you disagreeing

that the tax that Chavez is putting on the oil companies will not affect the price that you and I pay? Is that tax not a cost of doing business? What I was stating is putting taxes on oil and gas companies will only raise the price that you and I pay for oil and gas..Maybe that is not a bad thing, but you and I will pay more because of it.

Corporations do not pay taxes. Their customers pay the taxes levied on corporations.

[killbotfactory]

22. Uhh...

http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/042902gasreport/sectionv.pdf

"Oil companies do not set wholesale (rack) or retail prices based solely upon the
cost to manufacture and sell gasoline; rather wholesale (rack) and retail prices
are set on the basis of market conditions, including the prices of competitors.
Most oil companies and gasoline stations try to keep their prices at a constant
price difference with respect to one or more competitors. As a result of these
interdependent practices, gasoline prices of oil companies tend to go up and
down together."

This will not effect the price of gas.

[Jayhawk Lib]

28. You are entirely correct..

It is really the world market that sets the prices. Not the oil companies. Sure when the world market is up they are going to make more money. When the world market is down they do not make so much.

This is capitalism and it works very well when left alone.

[MrPrax]

24. Could be worse, Sparky

You could PAY world prices...OMG!!!

Chavez is obliged to get the BEST deal for his own people. He is NOT obliged to really give a shit what the American consumer has to pay or what goofey liberatarians think about 'fair taxes'.

[Jayhawk Lib]

27. I agree whole heartedly..

That is what I think about all the oil. The oil companies drill for it and refine it and are obliged to get all they can for the stock holders. You are a capitalist just like I am... I knew we would find something that we could agree on.

[fed-up]

30. You'd be better off blitching about the obscene profits oil companies are

making, than blitching about a developing country getting paid reasonable amounts for THEIR resources.

[BrotherBuzz]

31. While we're blitching...maybe we should blitch about the CEO's salary, too

Chevron CEO Dave O'Reilly was paid 8.8 million dollars in 2005. Nice work if you can get it, no?

[arcos]

32. Well, Chávez is the President of Venezuela, not the US...

So, he must govern for the people of Venezuela and help the people of Venezuela, not US consumers.

[muntrv]

26. Others like the Saudi Royal Family.

[Vidar]

5. How a real leader acts!

[sadiesworld]

7. It's so difficult for me to believe the good news coming out of SA

these days. I keep waiting for (fearing) the secret grand neoliberal plan to emerge, yet it doesn't. The hits just keep coming.

Thanks for all you do in bringing this important SA news to us, Judi Lynn!

[Judi Lynn]

9. I hope they've learned so much from the past with previous right-wing U.S.

Presidents that they CANNOT be controlled by right-wingding idiots in Washington again.

What has happened to Latin America because of Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush has been a national shame for America, and a source of constant suffering for them.

I'm hopeful, too, like you, sadiesworld! :hi:

[WhiteTara]

10. and the victor is

all the people of Venezuela. GO HUGO

[Shakespeare]

11. Yes the US is not requiring those same companies to pay the back taxes....

...they they owe OUR country. Obscene.

Good for Venezuela.

[tatertop]

13. And yet AGAIN: Viva Chavez!

[Jayhawk Lib]

17. Yea Viva Chavez

It is us the consumer that will pay that tax not the oil company. The oil companies will just pass that cost of doing business on down to us consumers.

[tatertop]

25. Not true. Chevron does not set the price of gas.

The price of gas is set primarily by the
three markers.
At any rate, Chavez is doing what is best for his people,
making me say..... Viva Chavez!

[Judi Lynn]

18. Venezuela says BP to pay back tax

Venezuela says BP to pay back tax
Sat Apr 1, 2006 12:32 AM GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's tax authorities said on Friday BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) had agreed to pay $14.4 million (8.3 million pounds) in back taxes after officials reduced their original $61.4 million demand during an appeals process by the operator.

Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, has been carrying out a broad probe into the energy sector and has hit foreign and local petroleum operators with back taxes from the period 2001 to 2004.

U.S. oil major Chevron (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) will pay $50.2 million in back taxes, fines and interest to the Venezuelan government as part of the ongoing probe, the Seniat tax agency said earlier on Friday.

Seniat has carried out the broad tax investigation of companies running 32 operating service agreements that produced around 500,000 barrels per day for state oil company PDVSA.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-03-31T233225Z_01_N31239537_RTRUKOC_0_UK-ENERGY-VENEZUELA-BP.xml&archived=False

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Throwing Stones at Venezuela

By Onnesha Roychoudhuri, AlterNet. Posted April 1, 2006.

U.S. criticism of Hugo Chavez's politics only serves to highlight the weakness of our democracy at home.

It's certainly no surprise. Even over a year ago, journalists were remarking at the "left turn" that so many Latin American countries were making. Of late, however, we only hear about Hugo Chavez and Venezuela. The South American country has taken the place of Cuba as the new whipping boy of alternative political models. But the targeted arguments -- coming mainly from the United States -- that depict Chavez as a tyrannical despot do little more than make the United States look the defensive paranoid for so mischaracterizing Venezuela's politics.

From Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to Pat Robertson, absurd public comparisons of President Hugo Chavez to Hitler and calls for assassination, it's clear that U.S. public figures love to vilify Chavez. The defamations have now been firmly established in mainstream politics -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continues to allege that Venezuela poses the greatest threat to Latin America. Why? Rice accuses Chavez of leading a "Latin brand of populism that has taken countries down the drain."
(snip)

Members of the media, trying to substantiate the obsessive fixation on Chavez-as-tyrant, have let the wild accusations frame our dialogue about Venezuela. You won't read much about Chavez's focus on the eradication of poverty -- extended even to the United States through the heating oil program that is bringing over 40 million gallons of discounted and free oil to low-income Americans in eight states. Rather, you'll get an earful of the Texas congressman Joe Barton seeking an investigation into the program. You have to read academic publications like Political Affairs Magazine to get to the irony behind the facts:

The only change in Venezuelan oil supply to the U.S. in the past three years has been this year's program to provide 40 percent discounts on 49 million gallons of heating fuel for poor people in Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and soon Vermont and Connecticut. How bizarre that Texas Republican congressman Joe Barton has launched an investigation into this humanitarian offering, instead of investigating the U.S, multinational oil companies that posted over $100 billion in corporate profits last year due to soaring gasoline prices.
(snip/...)

http://www.alternet.org/story/34270/

[cliss]

20. Ultimately: this is good news.

Chavez gets more money. LOTS more. Who can argue that Chavez spends money better than Bush?

Here's what probably will happen:

1) The price of gas will go through the roof. Nigeria's oil production is down drastically. The Middle East supply is volatile, anything can happen there.

2) People will start seriously looking into alternative fuels. Everybody's getting sick of this Gas Merry-Go-round.

3) Bush better start praying, today. His poll numbers are inversely related to the price of gas. At this point, they're going to sink like a rock, with no recovery.

[leesa]

34. Now if only WE could get these corporate bastards to pay their taxes

here!