El Diseño de la Política Petrolera en Venezuela: un enfoque de economía política[The design of the oil policy in Venezuela: a political economy approach]

This paper seeks to understand the changing relationship between the Venezuelan government and PDVSA (the state oil industry) regarding the national oil policy design and formulation. Using a political economy narrative, the analysis is based on the construction of several qualitative indicators that summarize these two actors' business vision in six areas, since the oil nationalization up to 2006. The resulting characterization of the oil policy process can be summarized as: a) during the years following the oil nationalization, actors had a divergent vision about oil business development; b) during the internationalization period in the 90s, the government and PDVSA’s policy formulation were highly coincident. Such an agreement can be explained by PDVSA’s strategic positioning as a leader in the oil policy discussions. In practice, that implied that the design of oil policy shifted from the government to PDVSA, causing an increase in the political and economic power held "de facto" by the oil industry; c) during the internationalization period, the expansion of the oil activity occurred at the expense of a progressive reduction in the government's fiscal resources, contributing to adding more tensions between these actors; d) in 2004, the government’s management delegation to PDVSA was definitively ended, and the design and implementation of the oil policy were transferred to the government. The government’s control of the industry generated a significant change in the industry's incentives and strategy and the Venezuelan oil business.