Over/Under on Nationalization?
If I were you, I’d worry about putting money in Repsol’s stock. They’re making a deal with Chavez, under the assumption that he’ll actually honor it! That’s not a way to look after your stockholders…
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela has awarded Spanish-Argentine company Repsol YPF and Japan’s Teikoku Oil Co. 20-year licenses to explore for and produce natural gas, the state oil company said on its Web site Thursday.
Repsol will take a 60 percent stake in a joint venture with state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, to exploit the Quiriquire Deep gas field, which has the potential to produce 280 million cubic feet a day of gas, PDVSA said.
…
President Hugo Chavez’s government has taken control of most of the oil industry in an effort to bring greater benefits to the country’s poor, and vowed to make similar moves in the gas sector.
PDVSA, however, has downplayed those comments and continued to award majority stakes in natural gas projects to private companies.
So what do you think the over/under is on the day that Chavez nationalizes these ventures? I’d guess it will be about 10 minutes after they start producing…
