Venezuela’s state oil company said on Friday it had purchased ConocoPhillips’ 40 percent stake in a joint natural gas venture with Chevron Corp.
State-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) said it would team up with Chevron to exploit the reserves in that area of Venezuela’s Deltana Platform.
PDVSA will control 61 percent of the joint venture, and Chevron 39 percent.
About 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves have been discovered, and the project is expected to produce around 21 million cubic meters per day.
The company did not disclose details on compensation.
Charlie Rowton, a ConocoPhillips spokesman at its Houston headquarters confirmed the sale, but declined to discuss the price or other terms. He said the sale is unrelated to separate World Bank arbitration over the nationalization of ConocoPhillips’ assets in heavy oil projects.
ORINOCO OIL BELT
The government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nationalized four major oil projects in 2007, including ConocoPhillips’ operations in the nation’s heavy-oil-producing Orinoco Oil Belt, after the two parties failed to agree on terms for a minority stake.
But ConocoPhillips continued to explore for offshore natural gas deposits and had worked with Chevron since 2003 in the Deltana Platform.
Chevron spokesman Scott Walker said the San Ramon, California-based company is pleased with the deal.
“We look forward to working with PDVSA on developing this project,” Walker said in an e-mailed statement.
Chavez’s government said last week that it nnight sue ConocoPhillips for exercising an option to purchase PDVSA’s 50 percent stake in a joint refinery in Sweeny, Texas.
ConocoPhillips says PDVSA has failed deliver heavy crude as required under contract to the refinery since the beginning of the year, while PDVSA says it stopped shipping 166,000 barrels of oil a day to comply with OPEC production cuts.
Rowton declined to comment on Friday on a possible lawsuit.
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Aramco), the Saudi state-owned oil giant, yesterday posted first-quarter profits of US$26 billion, down 4.6 percent from the prior year as falling global oil prices undermine the kingdom’s multitrillion-dollar development plans. Aramco had revenues of US$108.1 billion over the quarter, the company reported in a filing on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange. The company saw US$107.2 billion in revenues and profits of US$27.2 billion for the same period last year. Saudi Arabia has promised to invest US$600 billion in the US over the course of US President Donald Trump’s second term. Trump, who is set to touch
SKEPTICAL: An economist said it is possible US and Chinese officials would walk away from the meeting saying talks were productive, without reducing tariffs at all US President Donald Trump hailed a “total reset” in US-China trade relations, ahead of a second day of talks yesterday between top officials from Washington and Beijing aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by his aggressive tariff rollout. In a Truth Social post early yesterday, Trump praised the “very good” discussions and deemed them “a total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner.” The second day of closed-door meetings between US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) were due to restart yesterday morning, said a person familiar
RSS