Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) and its subsidiaries is a Corporation property of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, subordinated to the Venezuelan State and profoundly engaged with the genuine owner of oil: The Venezuelan People. Its operations are controlled and supervised by the People’s Ministry of Hydrocarbons, oil national policy governing body, within the framework of the Homeland Plan Law guidelines, Third Socialist Plan of the Nation’s Social and Economic Development 2019-2025.
Among PDVSA’s main functions we find: Planning, coordination, supervision and control of the activities of its companies, both in Venezuela and abroad. Additionally, its activities also include promotion or participation in those activities aimed at promoting the country’s comprehensive, organic and sustainable development, including those of agricultural and industrial nature, elaboration and transforming of goods and their trading and service delivery in order to achieve a proper linkage of the resources coming from hydrocarbons with the Venezuelan economy.
Strategic Guidelines
PDVSA’s strategic orientation is mainly based on the following guidelines given by the Shareholder:
• To enhance our hydrocarbons natural resources to the benefit of the Nation.
• To help our country’s geopolitical positioning at international level, with key objectives of Venezuelan foreign policy, like fostering a comprehensive cooperation with strategic allies and the Latin American integration, within the context of transition towards multipolarity.
• To act as an instrument for the country’s endogenous development, levering the social-economic development, through industrialization and social equity policies.
2000
• REFOUNDATION OF OPEC. President Hugo Chávez holds the II OPEC Summit in Caracas. The member countries had not met since 1975. It manages to stabilize the price of the barrel, reaching an average above $100.
2002
• COUP D’ÉTAT against the government of President Hugo Chávez. Among the reasons: the Hydrocarbons Law.
2002
• DEFEAT OF THE OIL SABOTAGE. Rescue of the oil tanker "Pilín León", renamed Negra Matea.
2003
• NEW PDVSA. The Supreme Commander decrees the end of the oil sabotage, as production is recovered, with all ships operating and refineries activated,
2007
• Nationalization of the Orinoco Oil Belt. Under the presidency of Hugo Chávez Frías.
2009
• Cruz de Mayo Gas Well. Exploitation of the first Offshore Free Gas well, with a production capacity of 70 million cubic feet of gas per day (MMPCD).
2009
• PDVSA Industrial presents PDV-21, the first drilling rig assembled in the country, located in Palital, Anzoátegui state.
2011
• OPEC certifies VENEZUELA'S FIRST PLACE IN PROVEN CRUDE RESERVES, surpassing Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq.
2012
• 4 de Febrero Platform. First 100% Venezuelan oil production platform, located in the Gulf of Paria, Sucre State.
2015
• OBAMA DECREE: The US government declares Venezuela an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States". It initiates unilateral coercive actions against our country.
2015
• Start of production of the Perla 7 well, the first offshore non-associated gas well incorporated to the national market. Perla field, Cardón IV Block, Rafael Urdaneta Project.
2016
• Declaration of Cooperation on Voluntary Oil Production Adjustment. OPEC+ decided to adjust production to 1.8 MMBD as of January 1, 2017. The Agreement was proposed by Venezuela in 2016, with the objective of seeking balance in crude oil prices.
2017
• Creation of the petro, the first cryptocurrency backed by the largest proven reserves of crude oil on the planet, in addition to large reserves of gas, gold and diamonds.
1829 (October 24)
• DECREE OF MINES. Enacted by the Liberator Simón Bolívar. Guarantees sovereignty over "mines of any kind", including hydrocarbons. First nationalization of soil and subsoil resources, applied to the Republic of Colombia.
1905 (August 14)
• MINING LAW. For the first time, it distinguishes oil and similar products from the rest of the mines existing in the subsoil. It establishes jurisdictional sovereignty over hydrocarbons and constituted the legal basis for oil concessions.
1920 (June 19)
• Law on Hydrocarbons and other fuel minerals. First Venezuelan oil law. It was protested by the English and North American companies, achieving the enactment of a new law.
1930 (July 16)
• Creation of the Hydrocarbons Technical Service, the first petroleum organization.
1930 (November 24)
• First Venezuelan engineers travel abroad to train in oil operations.
1942 (July 17)
• Income Tax Law. Oil companies will have to pay taxes according to the amount of their liquid profits.
1943 (March 13)
• Hydrocarbons Law. It unifies all existing legal instruments since the Mining Code (1854). It increases taxes and royalties to a minimum of 16.66%., and promotes oil refining in the national territory. It was in force until the enactment of the Organic Law of Hydrocarbons (2001).
1946 (June 14)
• Achievement of the organized labor movement: Signing of the first collective agreement between the unions and the concession companies.
1948 (July 12)
• Reform to the Income Tax Law. Known as 50/50 or Fifty-Fifty. In no case could the oil industry receive greater profits than the Venezuelan State, and the sum of corporate taxes could not be less than half of the companies' profits.
1950 (December 30)
• Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons. Previously it functioned as the Directorate of Mines and Hydrocarbons, attached to the Ministry of Development. Santiago Vera is appointed as head of the Directorate to inaugurate the position.
1957
• Graduation of the 1st graduating class of the School of Engineering of the Universidad del Zulia.
1971 (July 30)
•The National Congress enacts the Law of Assets Subject to Reversion in Hydrocarbon Concessions. Upon expiration of the concessions granted in 1943, all assets and facilities of the oil industry become property of the Nation.
1976
• The Law for the Nationalization of the Oil Industry entered into force.
1999 (September 23)
• Organic Law of Gaseous Hydrocarbons. Like the Organic Law of Hydrocarbons, the Organic Law of Gaseous Hydrocarbons reaffirms the constitutional principle of public ownership of gaseous hydrocarbons.
2001 (November 13)
• Under the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez enacted the Organic Hydrocarbons Law, thus initiating the Full Oil Sovereignty Policy, defined as national, popular and revolutionary.
