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Chavez to receive special authority to change oil industry

Venezuelan lawmakers said they would give President Hugo Chavez special powers this week to make changes to the country's oil, gas and electricity industries by presidential decree.

National Assembly President Cilia Flores said on Monday that lawmakers loyal to Chavez would approve an "enabling law" allowing the leftist leader to pass measures by decree for 18 months in the "energy sphere," in addition to 10 other areas announced earlier, ranging from the Venezuela's economy to its military defense.

"We are in complete agreement with the executive branch legislating on energy issues," Flores said.

She said that the law would permit Chavez to make "necessary adaptations" in the oil industry, as well as the natural gas and electricity sectors.

The pending bill was expected to receive the final approval necessary in the assembly as early as today.

It was not immediately clear what changes Chavez would be making within the oil and gas industries.

Chavez has been moving to transform Venezuela into a full socialist state, but said earlier this month that oil projects in the Orinoco River basin involving foreign oil firms should be under majority state ownership.

Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, has not said how his plans for the oil projects would be carried out, or spelled out whether foreign investors would be compensated.

Chavez has said that the private companies affected by the changes -- British Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Total and Statoil -- would be given the option to stay on as minority partners in the eastern region's oil exploitation projects.

The bill to be approved this week states that the government has the right to "assume the activities [of energy projects] for reasons of security, utility or social well-being."

It also grants the president powers to dictate what measures should be taken to carry out "the process of migrating the [oil-producing] associations to mixed companies, in the event they do not adapt within a period" set by the law.

Among Chavez's other plans are nationalizing Venezuela's main telecommunications company CA Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela, or CANTV, as well as the electricity and natural gas sectors.

Chavez, who was re-elected to a new six-year term as president last month, has also formed a special commission entrusted with rewriting the Constitution and he expects to hold a referendum on the changes by the end of the year.

Among the constitutional changes, Chavez has proposed doing away with presidential term limits to allow for indefinite re-election.

Term limits currently bar him from running again in 2012.
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