Resumen

AL-SHEREIDAH, Mazhar. Different Ways of Understanding the Oil Nationalization. Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2006, vol.12, n.1, pp.125-146. ISSN 20030507.

This article argues that, thirty years after the nationalization of the industry, current oil policies can hardly be characterized as new. The author offers a brief historical account that covers the successive presidential periods and emphasizes the fluctuations in oil prices since 1976. He examines the conceptual legacy of the ex-concessionaries, suggesting that it even contaminated the position of those who “saved their vote” when the possibility of “mixed enterprises” was discussed in the Congress. It is argued that the opening of the industry to foreign investments in the nineties is congruent with the ideology of those who promoted the nationalization in 1975. Examining the policies introduced during the last seven years, the article questions the virtues of the “price band”, suggests that it was the lack of a truly nationalist mentality that opened out the possibility of the oil lockout, and finally argues that the recent lack of perspective is reflected in the abandonment of the principle of conservation symbolized by Juan Pablo Pérez “Cccch”, and the favorable references to Arturo Uslar Pietri as a new opening to foreign capital is under way, just when the new paradigm in the world oil market is increasing the value of the extra-heavy crudes of the Orinoco Basin.

Palabras clave : Oil; Oil Industry; Nationalization; Mixed Enterprises; Venezuela.