VENEZUELA - PDVSA - Board Of Directors.

A professionally run organization, PDVSA is in charge of the operation of the hydrocarbon sector in Venezuela. Oil and gas exploration, development, production and local retailing ceased being a monopoly for PDVSA in early 1998, when the state company became a holding entity. While it is administered in a technocratic fashion, PDVSA does come under the influence of the political dispensation of the day - and the regime of Chavez is no exception. However, Venezuelan leaders have tended to stay away from the day-to-day running of this massive organisation. The key figures in PDVSA, i.e. the members of its board of directors, are as follows:

Ali Rodriguez Araque: Designated PDVSA President in April 2002, Rodriguez has a long and distinguished political career and association with the hydrocarbon sector. Between January 2001 and April 2002, he was OPEC secretary general. Before that, i.e. between February 1999 and January 2001, he served as Minister of Energy and Mines; in 2000, he was named president of OPEC.

Rodriguez was a member of Venezuela's Congress from 1983 to 1999, and also president of the Chamber of Deputies' Energy and Mines Commission from 1994 to 1997. He was vice-president of Congress' Energy and Mines Commission for the analysis and approval of reports on the oil opening master contract.

From 1993 to 1999 Rodriguez was a member of the National Energy Council and the Latin American Parliament's Energy Commission. He was a member Presidential Chavez's Liaison Commission for Energy and Mines and was again elected to Congress, as senator for the State of Bolivar, for the 1999-2004 period.

As the OPEC boss in Vienna, Rodriguez who in February 1999 helped engineer OPEC's price defence strategy, has pushed for a new OPEC marker crude oil to replace the current basket of seven crudes and what he calls "ridiculous" markers such as WTI, Brent and Dubai. But OPEC is yet to take up his proposal. In Feb. 2001, he said the OPEC states should set minimum taxes on oil firms to avoid competing against each other for foreign investment.

A lawyer who received his degree from the Central University of Venezuela in 1961, Rodriguez studied economics, specialising in petroleum, and has been a member of various study and analysis teams on mining and oil economics. He has published several articles on the subject of energy policy, the latest one being "The Privatisation Process in the Venezuelan Oil Industry", published in 1997 (see a detailed profile in APS Review's Oil, Gas & Downstream Trends Vol. 57, No. 25).

Jorge Kamkoff, Vice President of PDVSA, has been a member of the board since February 1999. In October 1999 he was appointed vice-president of the PDVSA Gas Division, and in February 2000 was named vice-president of the Manufacturing and Marketing Division, and later executive director of PDVSA Refining, Supply and Commerce. In March 2001 he was appointed Vice President and was confirmed in that position in February and April 2002.

Kamkoff was head of the governing council of the petroleum industry's training centre CEPET, assistant to PDVSA's presidency in relations with the US Congress and energy administration; head of Corpoven refining, of Puerto La Cruz and Meneven refining operations, and of project management & control at PDVSA's petrochemicals co-ordination department.

Kamkoff took part in the Venezuela-Germany agreement as alternate co-ordinator for energy and heavy crude upgrading project. He worked for Warren Petroleum Co. of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was president of the National Ports Institute during its restructuring and privatisation. He was president of the commission to restructure the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security.

Jose Rafael Paz: Appointed Vice President in April 2002, Rafael Paz was formerly president of Pequiven, a subsidiary of PDVSA in charge of the petrochemical sector. He had joined Pequiven in 1994, holding the posts of Business manager of the Olefins and Plastics Business Unit, director and vice president as well.

A chemical engineer who graduated from Louisiana State University in 1974, Rafael Paz began his professional career with Diamond Shamrock Company's Specialized Chemical Products Division, in the United States. In 1975 he joined Compania Shell de Venezuela -later the subsidiary Maraven- as processes engineer at the Cardon refinery. In 1991 he was appointed general manager of Maraven's Internal Market Division

Ludovico Nicklas: A PDVSA internal director, appointed in April 2002, Nicklas was previously executive director of Exploration, Production and Upgrading, a post to which he was appointed in 2001. He was appointed manager of the PDVSA Exploration and Production function in1996, and managing director of Exploration in 1998.

Nelson Nava: A PDVSA internal director, Nava was until his appointment the president of PDVSA Gas, a position to which he was appointed on March 16, 2001. Until March, Nava used to head the development division of PdV Gas. His experience is strong in the information aspects of the business.

In 1997 Nava was appointed manager of the PDVSA Information Services function, and as corporate manager of Information Technology in January 1998. In July of that year he was named managing director of Information Technology (Cybernetics) in the PDVSA Services Division.

Arnoldo Rodriguez Ochoa: A PDVSA external director, Rodriguez is a retired Army major general. He has been in this position since August 1999 when he was first appointed. He has since been reconfirmed in March 2001 and again in February and April 2002.

Rodriguez is one of the military men brought into the company by President Chavez as part of steps to end its autonomy. This culminated in the new hydrocarbons law, decreed by Chavez in November 2001, which boosted the authority of the energy and mines ministry at the expense of PDVSA.

Clara Coro: A PDVSA external director, she became a member of the board of PDVSA in February 2002. In November 2001 she had been named Venezuela's national representative to the Economic Commission of OPEC. A chemical engineer with a degree from Venezuela's Central University in 1981, Coro did postgraduate studies at Simon Bolivar University, specialising in Hydrocarbons Economy Management.

Coro joined the Ministry of Energy and Mines' Hydrocarbons Planning and Economy Division in September 1982. In 1990 she was appointed head of the International Markets Division, and in 1994 was also placed in charge of the Ministry's Economy and Finance Division. In 2000 she became director of Hydrocarbons Planning and Economy.

Hugo Hernandez Raffalli: A PDVSA external director since April 2002, Raffali's experience is mainly through membership in various chambers of commerce and energy related state commissions. He was president of the Venezuelan Petroleum Chamber's Zulia chapter in 1994-2000, and board director of the Chamber in 1996-98 when he was elected first vice-president.

In 2000 Raffali was elected president of the Venezuelan Petroleum Chamber for the 2000-2002 period. He is a member of the Maracaibo Chamber of Commerce, of the State of Zulia's Industry Chamber and of the Fedecamaras Energy Commission. He was also a member of the Presidential Commission charged with analysing the Organic Law on Hydrocarbons bill.