Chavez to spend $950m on Venezuelan petchems

25 August 2008 18:19  [Source: ICIS news]

CARACAS (ICIS news)--Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has approved an additional $950m (€646m) for the local petrochemical industry, official sources said on Monday.

The investment is intended to vault Venezuela above Brazil as the region's top producer of plastic resins by 2013, official sources said.

"We are in second place after Brazil, but by 2013 we'll be the first," Chavez said in a state media broadcast. "We'll be one of the most powerful petrochemical nations in the world."

Chavez said that production of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) has risen nearly 200% since he took office 10 years ago to 160,000 tonnes/year from 60,000 tonnes/year.

The president of state chemical producer Saul Ameliach, said Venezuela is currently producing 600,000 tonnes/year of plastic resins.

The goal is to produce 2m tonnes/year by 2011, he said.

Chavez credited his campaign to nationalise the hydrocarbons sector for Venezuela's growing petrochemical production.

"It's not to the transnational's benefit that there's a petrochemical [industry] in Venezuela, because then they lose markets," he said.

Previously, Venezuela only produced oil for multinationals that exported it abroad, forcing the country to depend on imports for derivative products, he said.

($1=€0.68)

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