[lbo-talk] Chavez celebrates May Day by siezing control of oil operations from corporations

[B.]

Venezuela takes operations from big oil companies

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.

[...]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070501/wl_nm/venezuela_nationalization_dc