(Reuters) - Undaunted by a slowing economy, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is picking up the pace of his leftist revolution with a relentless raft of nationalizations and an offensive against opponents.

Following are some key events in Chavez's 10-year push to build a socialist state in the OPEC member state that is also South America's top oil exporter.

OIL

In 2007, Chavez's government took a majority stake in four oil projects operating in the Orinoco river basin worth an estimated $30 billion. U.S. companies Exxon Mobil Corp and ConocoPhillips quit the country over the move and filed arbitration claims against Venezuela. France's Total SA and Norway's StatoilHydro received around $1 billion of compensation after reducing their holdings. BP Plc and Chevron Corp remained as minority partners.

This month Chavez seized a major gas injection project belonging to Williams Companies and a range of assets from local service companies.

FINANCE

Chavez last week agreed to pay $1 billion for Banco de Venezuela, a division of Spanish banking conglomerate Grupo Santander, to help him channel state resources. He has said he will nationalize any bank that fails in Venezuela.

HEAVY INDUSTRY

The government paid $2 billion this year for Argentine-led Ternium's stake in Venezuela's largest steel mill. Chavez last year ordered the nationalization of the cement industry, affecting Mexico's Cemex, Switzerland's Holcim and France's Lafarge. Last week he ordered the takeover of several large iron smelters.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

In 2007, the Chavez government nationalized the country's largest telecommunications company, CANTV, buying out U.S.-based Verizon Communications' 28.5 percent stake for $572 million. Analysts said Verizon received fair compensation for its assets.

POWER

In the same year, Venezuela expropriated the assets of U.S.-based AES Corp in Electricidad de Caracas, the country's largest private power producer. The government paid AES $740 million for its 82 percent stake. Financial analysts described the deal as fair for AES.

FARMING

In 2005, Chavez began implementing a 2001 law that lets the state expropriate unproductive farmland or seize farms without proper titles. The government redistributed land deemed as idle in an effort to boost food production and ease rural poverty -- taking over a handful of large farms including a British-run ranch. A year later, the government agreed to pay more than $3 million to a group of Spanish farmers for their land. In March, Chavez seized a eucalyptus plantation owned by Irish cardboard company Smurfit Kappa to use the land for other food crops. The government has also seized two factories owned by U.S. food giant Cargill.

(Reporting by Caracas Newsroom; Editing by David Storey)