OREANDA-NEWS. The Venezuelan government is offering to return expropriated oil services companies, an extraordinary shift in official state-oriented policy that has prevailed since late President Hugo Chavez took power in 1999.

Venezuela's 2009 nationalization of mostly domestic oil services companies in the Lake Maracaibo area was a mistake that must be reversed, energy minister and state-owned PdV chief executive Eulogio Del Pino told the Maracaibo oil chamber (CPV) this week.

"I believe that what was done in Lake Maracaibo had many errors," Del Pino said. "We must go to a new model with majority private ownership."

PdV has adopted a new policy of returning the expropriated assets to their original private-sector owners "if they want to continue working" with the company, Del Pino said.

The unusual remarks come at a time of falling crude production, particularly in PdV's legacy divisions such as Lake Maracaibo in western Venezuela, where the company produces light and medium-quality grades. PdV is struggling to check natural upstream decline, particularly after foreign oil services giants such as Schlumberger curbed their local operations this year because of a lack of payment by PdV.

The largely uncompensated takeover of the oil services industry was part of a wave of government seizures across the oil-based economy. Among the largest asset seizures were extra-heavy crude upgraders owned by ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.

CPV says the expropriated companies were worth up to a combined $3bn when Chavez nationalized the oil services sector during a dispute over an estimated $10bn in unpaid invoices. At the time, the energy ministry and PdV put the real value of the assets at about $1bn.