Caracas, 30 Jan. AVN. - The Cabinet on Wednesday evaluated two agreements in the areas of oil and mining, to be submitted for consideration by the National Assembly, said the Minister of Petroleum and Mining holder, Rafael Ramirez.

Ramirez explained that, following the recent meeting with the President Hugo Chavez, took a series of decisions, amongst which is the reform of the Act extraordinary contribution of oil prices and the allocation of mining areas gold by the Venezuelan Corporation of Mining, a subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

With regard to the reform of the Law on Extraordinary Contribution of Oil Prices, Oil holder recalled that "our oil legislation has established collection mechanism of oil revenue for the benefit of our people and have had extraordinary results."

He stressed that if the oil price continues with the same behavior in 2012, Petroleos de Venezuela will "steer more dollars (currency) to the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), 2,470 million", while available Most bolivars to meet budget commitments.

On Monday, the head of the ministry of oil said the reform law will increase the ceiling provided for in the legal instrument in order to raise "sections of the contribution to lower tension in the speculative sector".

The proposal aims to optimize the use of foreign exchange from mining activities, production and marketing of crude. Thus, when the price of oil is between the provisions of the national budget ($ 55 per barrel) and $ 80, the contribution to the National Development Fund (Fonden) will be 20% of the difference.

Should the price lies between 80 and 100 dollars, will go to 80% of the difference, while the contribution is 90% when located between 100 and 110 dollars. At the time when the price of oil exceeds $ 110, will be allocated 95% of the difference to Fonden.

In the above scheme, the first stop included a margin between the price stipulated in the national budget and $ 70.

Gold mining

Another issue addressed by the executive cabinet was a point of consideration for the assignment of gold mining areas by the Corporación Venezolana de Mines, a subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), in three blocks of Bolivar State, located in Guasipati, El Callao and South Sifonte.

The development zone covers 35,000 hectares gold. "The areas that are assigned to the corporation, not including small areas of mining," he said.

These blocks represent an area of ​​35,778 hectares and estimated reserves of 81.4 million ounces of gold.

"This measure will outline the areas to promote the exploitation of gold and prevent smuggling, and give order to a sector that was in private hands who traded on the stock, making great fortunes, untapped resources," explained Ramirez Monday.

Estimated reserves of ore are located in 133 million ounces. The government will undertake, hand in hand with the Republic of China, a certification process that apart from gold, will determine on Venezuelan soil deposits of coltan, diamonds and silver.