Interview: Venezuela's Ambassador to the U.S. -- -Bernardo Alvarez---The Ambassador
>> welcome back. venezuela’s congress approved higher royalties for oil companies such as exxon-mobil and chevron as president hugo chavez seeks a bigger share of industry profits. joining us to talk about this and other issues impacting the country is venezuela’s ambassador to the u.s., bernardo alvarez. the ambassador joins us from washington, d.c. welcome, mr. ambassador.
>> how are you?
>> i’m very well, thank you. let me start by asking you, why did venezuela increase royals to more than―royalties to more than 33% to be paid by all oil companies operating in your country?
>> basically, because the basis of any good oil policy is the notion of equilibrium. what the fiscal revenue for the owner of the natural resources is and also what is the participation of the company. it was clear imbalance in venezuela over the past years so it was everybody understood that it’s a sovereign country, we should increase the royalties to go back to equilibrium.
>> are you concerned that higher royalties will drive u.s. oil companies like exxon-mobil and chevron, both of which are shareholders in vensn oil vent―venezuelan oil ventures, out of your country?
>> i think it’s not accurate because chevrontexaco, they have agreed, they have negotiated with us. we had a process of negotiation of oil contracts, new contracts, and they participated and agreed and all those companies have agreed to pay more taxes. imagine that in some of those projects companies were paying 1% of royalties with prices at $60. so it didn’t make any sense. so chevron is participating with us, is a very good partner for venezuela. we don’t have any problem with chevrontexaco at all. and exxon-mobil, keeps working with us in some of the projects. in several contracts, they sold their shares to other international companies. but basically we haven’t had any problem with international oil companies.
>> the c.e.o. of b.p., john brown, told bloomberg a week ago that simply the 33% royalties will drive investors away. doesn’t that concern you?
>> well, this is the opinion of mr. brown. b.p. is still working with us and they are interested in participating more in the new projects. so this is not what we heard from them in venezuela. but anyway, there are different companies from different parts of the world, in the process of competition among themselves. i would say that as i said to you at the beginning, it was a completely unbalanced situation we had in the past in venezuela so everybody understands there should be a process of balancing the interests of companies, the interests of consumers but also the needs of the―fiscal needs of the owner of the natural resources. i mean, the countries.
>> on the subject of iran, reports this week that venezuela rejects the notion of iran as a terrorist state. the u.s. subsequently, as you know, slapped an arms ban on venezuela. what impact does this have on your country?
>> actually, what we have said is that venezuela complies, venezuela has never encouraged, never used terrorism in its domestic or international policies. there is no one presenting any evidence of venezuela doing anything regarding terrorism. there is no international organization whatsoever who has any problem, any claim about venezuela participating in terrorist activities. so sometimes we feel this is only a matter that concerns some people in the state department. so we don’t qualify countries. we are against any kind of terrorist act and this is why, for example, we have been asking for over a year the u.s. to extradite a terrorist, venezuelan citizen accused of bombing a cuban aircraft back in 1976 and he has been in this country for one year, we have asked the u.s. government to extradite, according to a treaty we have with the u.s. and we don’t have a response.
>> mr. ambassador, we’ll have to leave it there for time constraints. thank you very much for joining us.
>> thank you.
>> bernardo alvarez is the ambassador from venezuela to the united states. back in a moment.
点击播报
Listen Focus: World News Update
>> i’m mark crumpton with a world news update. mexican president vincente fox says he’s optimistic the united states will adopt a compromise immigration plan. president fox says he believes u.s. lawmakers will also reject what he calls the xenophobia of ultra right wingers. in an interview on his presidential plane, mr. fox criticized president bush’s plan to slow mexican migrants who cross the border into the u.s. at a rate of 1400 a day by manning the border with 6,000 national guard troops. president fox called the senate plan to build a 350-mile wall along the border, endorsed by president bush, a waste of money. there have been protests and minor disturbances before at guantanamo but now there’s been a fight between prisoners and guards. the military says it happened thursday as g
