Petroleum In Venezuela

The first book in a new series on oil exporting countries, Venezuela: the Political Economy of Oil is indispensable for all observers of the world oil market. As the founding member of OPEC, Venezuela continues to hold a central position in the world petroleum market. Its national oil company, PdVSA, the third largest oil company in the world, is pursuing a revolutionary policy of external acquisitions in developed countries. At the same time, there are early signs of a shift in its attitudes towards allowing foreign investment. This study provides a comprehensive and masterly analysis of the Venezuelan oil industry within the context of the political economy of the country. In particular, Boue considers the potential reserves of the Orinco Oil Basin, the environmental challenges facing Venezuela's oil industry, and the uncertain future of orimulsion, a possibly revolutionary new fuel. In light of two attempted military coups in 1992, this study assesses the prospects for the Venezuelan oil industry in the near and longer-term future.

This study provides an analytical history of Venezuela's oil industry, its pioneering efforts in heavy oils and the production of orimulsion fuel. It is also a look into Venezuela's oil history.

Chronology of Venezuelan Oil (1969) covers all aspects of the Venezuelan petroleum industry’s historical evolution: technical, legal, economic, social and political to create a reference source for scholars, teachers, executives, professionals and technicians, as well as students of the industry.

Oil has played a major role in Venezuela’s economy since the first gusher was discovered along Lake Maracaibo in 1922. As Miguel Tinker Salas demonstrates, oil has also transformed the country’s social, cultural, and political landscapes. In The Enduring Legacy, Tinker Salas traces the history of the oil industry’s rise in Venezuela from the beginning of the twentieth century, paying particular attention to the experiences and perceptions of industry employees, both foreign and Venezuelan. He reveals how class ambitions and corporate interests combined to reshape many Venezuelans’ ideas of citizenship. Middle-class Venezuelans embraced the oil industry from the start, anticipating that it would transform the country by introducing modern technology, sparking economic development, and breaking the landed elites’ stranglehold. Eventually Venezuelan employees of the industry found that their benefits, including relatively high salaries, fueled loyalty to the oil companies. That loyalty sometimes trumped allegiance to the nation-state. North American and British petroleum companies, seeking to maintain their stakes in Venezuela, promoted the idea that their interests were synonymous with national development. They set up oil camps—residential communities to house their workers—that brought Venezuelan employees together with workers from the United States and Britain, and eventually with Chinese, West Indian, and Mexican migrants as well. Through the camps, the companies offered not just housing but also schooling, leisure activities, and acculturation into a structured, corporate way of life. Tinker Salas contends that these practices shaped the heart and soul of generations of Venezuelans whom the industry provided with access to a middle-class lifestyle. His interest in how oil suffused the consciousness of Venezuela is personal: Tinker Salas was born and raised in one of its oil camps.