PLUG INTO ENERGY

Venezuela agrees to talks with Conoco

US oil giant Conoco-Phillips and Venezuela are advancing in talks. Eulogio del Pino, a director at Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA said on Monday that "We are advancing . . . next week we have a meeting."

Last year, President Hugo Chavez took over four multibillion-dollar heavy oil upgrading projects as part of a nationalization drive, edging Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips out of the OPEC nation in the process.

PDVSA and Conoco will be meeting next week for more talks that include discussing the nationalization of its assets of heavy oil projects in the Orinoco Belt in 2007. PDVSA demanded a 60% stake minimum in four projects, owned by private-sector companies that pump and upgrade tar oil from the Orinoco river basin. The move resulted in Conoco filing arbitration proceedings against Venezuela. They have maintained simultaneous discussions to reach an out-of-court settlement of compensation.

The Houston based Conoco-Phillips had the most at stake in Venezuela of all foreign companies, Conoco had majority stakes in two of the four Orinoco fields, Hamaca and Petrozuata, plus stakes in another two untapped conventional oil fields in the Gulf of Paria. An estimated 10% of Conoco's total reserves are said to lie in the OPEC nation.

PDVSA however, ruled out talks with ExxonMobil after that company froze $12 billion worth of Venezuelan assets in efforts to secure compensation for the nationalized holdings.