By Brian Ellsworth 16 minutes ago
Venezuela stripped the world's biggest oil companies of operational control over massive Orinoco Belt crude projects on Tuesday, a vital move in President Hugo Chavez's nationalization drive.
The May Day takeover came exactly a year after Bolivian President Evo Morales, a leftist ally of Chavez, startled investors by ordering troops to seize his country's gas fields, accelerating Latin America's struggle to reclaim resources.
U.S. companies ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Britain's BP, Norway's Statoil and France's Total agreed to obey a decree to transfer operational control on Tuesday, although the OPEC nation complained ConocoPhillips was somewhat resistant.
The four projects can turn about 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of heavy, tarry crude into valuable synthetic oil.
Thousands of oil workers gathered on a road just outside the project facilities for an all-night vigil, dancing to salsa music and playing dominoes as they prepared for a massive rally Chavez is scheduled to lead on Tuesday afternoon.
"President Chavez has ordered us to take full control over the sovereignty of our oil, and we are doing that today," Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez told state television at the oil installations shortly after midnight after a hero's welcome from the workers.
"In this very instant our oil workers are taking control of each of the areas of each of the installations."
Workers exploded into a frenzied celebration after a New Year's Eve-style countdown to midnight, dancing until the early dawn hours with some standing atop a pipeline that runs toward the installations, which are worth an estimated $30 billion.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070501/wl_nm/venezuela_nationalization_dc