Just to prove that I am no respector of international frontiers when it comes to the idiocies of government, the following happened late this afternoon:
The Seniat, Venezuela’s tax authority, on Thursday ordered international oil major Royal Dutch/Shell to pay nearly $131 million in back taxes it says the company owes. The government agency also reportedly seized a number of documents and computers from Chevron offices.
The documents were seized from the company’s offices in the city of Maracaibo, state news agency Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias reported late Thursday.
The Seniat has been auditing international oil companies as part of a nationalist campaign aimed at maximizing
income from foreign oil projects.According to a Dow Jones News report, Seniat officials confiscated the documents after the company repeatedly refused to hand over information related to its tax paying obligations. Seniat officials could not immediately be reached for further comment.
This is believed to be the first such action by the Seniat agency against a major foreign oil company during the administration of President Hugo Chavez.
What gall! This only a day after Chevron pledged to invest $140 million to develop two natural gas blocks at Venezuela’s offshore Deltana Platform.
Chavez may think that in the current international oil market, his government can alter the terms for foreign oil companies as often and as onerously as they like, but eventually, the majors — who have the capital and the expertise to develop the country’s offshore gas reserves and the tar sands of the Orinoco Belt, will say no. ExxonMobil has already hinted it will.
He also needs to consider — playing chicken with international oil companies can get you killed.
5:47 pm on July 14, 2005
