A major competitor soon will enter the world market for exploration and development capital. Venezuelan Pres. Carlos Andres Perez has confirmed that state owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA will seek international oil company help with $15.8 billion in upstream investments it plans through 1995.
Since nationalization of the oil industry in 1976, Venezuela has kept foreigners out of exploration and production. Apparently, the government now realizes that Pdvsa can't single-handedly convert petroleum resources into wealth fast enough to meet Venezuela's urgent economic needs.
Perez will encounter opposition in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America. But he has properly subordinated nationalism to economic necessity. If Pdvsa makes the right prospects available on good terms, it will attract plenty of interest. And the only valid grumbling will come from other countries that need international capital but have less to offer.
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