Latinnews Archive
Andean Group - 2 October 1981
VENEZUELA: Oil giant goes for experience
The new board of the state oil company, PDVSA, announced at the end of August, contains most of the old familiar faces. Of the nine principal directors, seven were ratified, and only two rephacedi Luh Plaz Bruzual has retired, and Hugo Finol has moved to Lagoven. The president, General Rafael Alfonzo Ravard, vice-president Julio Cesar Arreaza, and directors Alirio Parm and Manuel Penalver have all been on the board since 1975. Edgard Leal, also appointed in 1975, becomes alternate director, in order to become head of PDVSA's London office.
The most significant changes made by President Herrera were to promote WoIf Petzall from director to the newlycreated post of second vice-president, and to bring in a man from the energy minist, Jesus Enrique Daboin, to replace Plaz Bruzual. Nelson Vasquez, an ex-Shell employee, who succeeded Humberto Calderon Berti as president of the Intevep research institute, has been promoted to director, along with Meneven director Francisco Guedez. In each case, the promotions have been given to experts with more than 20 years in the industry.
The orily real political appointees are Arreaza, who was deputy mines minister during the 1960s, and union leader Manuel Penalver, both for AD, and Antonio Casas Gonzalez for COPEI.
Meneven vice-president Gustavo Coronel was the only one to raise substantial objections to an appointment, when he tendered his resignation in apparent protest against the appointment of his subordinate, Guedez, as a PDVSA director. But his motives appear to have been personal and professional, rather than political.
The professional level of the PDVSA board is almost uniformly high. General Alfonzo, for example, has a degree in civil engineering from MIT, with further studies in Italy and France; Parra has an economics degree from Cambridge, and was for many years a petroleum adviser to the World Bank; and Daboin has a petroleum engineering degree from Tulsa.
* PDVSA's investment reserve of Bs27bn, which is attracting covetous glances from the likes of planning minister Ricardo Martinez (WR-81-33 & 37), is earmarked as follows: existing programmes Bs10bn; equipment replacements BsSbn; Orinoco oil belt Bs3bn; eastern side of Lake Maracaibo project Bs500m; unassigned Bs5.5bn. With projected earnings of Bs48.6bn during this period, PDVSA should have total resources of Bs75.6bn; total investments for the period of the sixth plan, however, amount to Bs79.3bn.
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