Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has replaced Asdrubal Chávez as president of state oil company PdV with head of state petrochemicals firm Pequiven.
By Argus Media – Carlos Camacho
Jan 06, 2023
Pedro Tellechea as the new PdV president “will consolidate the momentum of the national oil industry,” Maduro posted on social media today. Chávez “will soon have new responsibilities.”
He takes the post as PdV will be working more with Chevron under eased US sanctions that allow the US major to expand it expand its activities in the country, including exporting crude.
In a series of tweets, Maduro also changed his foreign minister for the third time in under a year, replacing Carlos Faria with Yvan Gil.
Chávez was one of the last remaining leaders in the government with direct ties to Maduro’s predecessor and mentor, late former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.
Chávez worked at PdV in early 1992, when his first cousin Hugo Chávez attempted a coup d’etat that landed the then lieutenant colonel of the paratroopers in jail for two years. He eventually became president of Venezuela in 1999 until his death in 2013, when his hand-picked successor Maduro moved permanently into the presidency.
Tellechea has been head of Pequiven since August 2019.
“He won the workers of Pequiven over, he put an end to mistreatment and [political] persecution”, a former Pequiven engineer told Argus.
The Asoquim chemical and petrochemical industry group also told Argus in 2022 that it had a good working relationship with Tellechea.
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Read More: Argus Media – Petchem head replaces Chávez at Venezuela’s PdV
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