THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Oil Firms Under The Gun In Revenue-Hungry Venezuela
Posted 13 May 05
By PETER MILLARD Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
CARACAS — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, intent on getting more money from the oil industry to finance state programs, has sent private firms scrambling to get a grip on tax policy changes.
Venezuela has been changing the rules on oil taxes since last October, when it abruptly scrapped a royalty tax holiday on four heavy crude projects.
That was just the start. Early this year state-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PVZ.YY) bullied ConocoPhillips (COP) into a royalty rate hike on an eastern oil field, Corocoro. Then the Seniat national tax office reclassified the tax rate for 32 oil service contracts in April, hiking the rate to 50% from the 34% rate in the original contracts.