Venezuela takes over Exterran assets

Venezuela yesterday completed its takeover of 52 gas compressor and electrical generator units operated by US oil service company Exterran as part of a nationalisation drive by President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez, a fierce foe of US influence who calls Cuba's Fidel Castro a mentor, has increased state control over broad swaths of Venezuela's economy including telecommunications, oil and steel assets in his drive to install a socialist model.

State oil company PDVSA recently began taking control of Exterran operations and other oil service assets and plans to incorporate more than 400 workers employed by the US company.

"This decision ... strengthens the country's energy sovereignty, secures oil and gas operations and contributes to the building of socialism," PDVSA said in a statement to Reuters.

Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez has said only some parts of the Opec nation's oil industry will be nationalized to guarantee that strategic sectors are controlled by the state.

The national assembly is currently reading a proposed law to put all petrochemical activity under state control, affecting Japanese and US companies and extending the list of companies in the oil industry already in government hands.

Despite his anti-capitalist rhetoric, analysts say, Chavez has compensated some companies fairly for nationalized assets, but his takeover of operations belonging to petroleum heavyweights like Exxon Mobil sparked legal action.