Venezuela Restarts Talks With a Foreign Oil Firm
By SPENCER SWARTZ
DAVOS, Switzerland -- Total SA Chairman Thierry Desmarest said the French oil giant is in fresh talks with the Venezuela government about expanding its operations in the South American nation.
"We are just at the beginning" of discussions, Mr. Desmarest said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. "If Venezuela wants to offer opportunities on reasonable terms, of course we will look to those possibilities," he said, declining to provide further details.
Like several other Western oil companies, Total was burned two years ago in Venezuela after President Hugo Chávez nationalized much of the petroleum sector.
In February 2008, Venezuela said it would give Total $834 million in compensation for agreeing to take a minority stake in a new state-controlled company, PetroCedeno. That company took control of the operations of Sincor, in which Total had held a 47% interest.
~snip~
"I think that the new context {of lower oil prices}, efficiency in managing huge projects is a critical issue and a good combination between national oil companies and international oil companies can lead to real efficiencies," he said.
Mr. Desmarest said he also believed Total, which reports earnings next week, would maintain capital expenditure this year at levels on par with 2008, when the company pumped roughly $20 billion into its drilling and refining operations. "Our intention is to continue to have very substantial capital expenditure."
"Ten years ago we had the same problem of oil prices going down and many companies cut investment. We {Total} didn't. We felt {the sharp price drop} was just transitory and it was a good decision Total made. We developed capacity in the low price environment and prices eventually recovered," he said.
More:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123332492121233329.html?mod=googlenews_wsj