Bloomberg gets a very nice scoop, interviewing someone at PDVSA who explains more about the plans for publicly listed shares.
The operation would not be considered a privatization, as shares will be offered in a holding company created to manage PDVSA’s stakes in the joint ventures and not in the state oil company itself, the official said.
So, like when China listed PetroChina publicly, but not its controlling parent company, CNPC, that wasn’t a privatization? OK! Whatever you say, “company official.”
Another surprise here is that PDV may reduce its holdings in some joint ventures to 51%, just 4 years after PDV spent hundreds of millions of dollars to boost its holdings in these ventures to at least 60%.
ADDING: Hola, prensa venezolana, estás permitido cubrir estas noticias.
ADDING2: Devil’s Excrement blog had a good analysis/guess about this situation even in the absence of this new information. Take a look.
ADDING3: Via MexFiles, gotta love that this reaches people on March 3. An auspicious day.
Setty's notebook 
Hmm. I thought we already knew that.
If PdVSA makes money on selling shares in the joint venture what is the issue? It still retains control through 51% ownership. If the publicly traded shares somehow and somewhat miraculously manage to introduce some market-driven discipline into the management of the JV, all the better for the principle owner PdVSA, no?
In any event, none of this will be ready before the October elections. I’m sure the Chavistas would not want the market openly judging the heavily politicized management of the Venezuelan NOC before the elections as that could be extremely embarrassing.
Elsewhere, Colombian NOC EcoPetrol expects to grow proven reserves by 21% by 2012 year-end. Lofty but not entirely unreasonable as the growth in proven reserves will come from the development of existing discoveries. See: Ecopetrol planea crecer 21% sus reservas este año, marzo 1 de 2012 – 9:50 pm,
http://www.portafolio.co/economia/ecopetrol-planea-crecer-21-sus-reservas-este-ano
Looks like the Devil was right. This is a way for China to guard it’s investment while at the same time bringing needed financing to new projects?
Don’t they have to amend the Ley Organica de Hidrocarburos to allow PDVSA’s share to drop to 51%?
no, the law only requires a majority stake. 60% was always just a policy decision, not a law.