Investors propose rescuing eight PDVSA plants

A private consortium has formally asked the Government of Venezuela for a fifteen-year concession over eight state-owned pipe and valve manufacturing plants that are completely idle.

The proposal was submitted by the US firm Sunergon Oil Operating and the Venezuelan company Empresa de Servicios Industriales Alloys to the Centro Internacional de Inversión Productiva. The plan seeks to restore the operating capacity of facilities originally acquired by PDVSA to supply inputs both to the oil industry and to the country's water sector.

The requested industrial block covers strategic complexes spread across five states, including the IMOSA and Invetubos plants in Carabobo, Tubhelca in Lara, Helvesa and Enaval in Anzoátegui, the Atlántica Socotherm and ZYP coating plants in Zulia, and the Empresa de Producción Social Tubos Sin Costura in the Guayana region. These factories came under state control between 2009 and 2012 and were later grouped under the subsidiary Empresa Nacional de Tubos.

The alliance envisages using raw materials previously purchased by the procurement subsidiary Bariven, as well as technological upgrades to welding lines and test benches to guarantee domestic production of steel pipes and industrial valves. According to the letter submitted, the main objective is import substitution and a reduction in dependence on foreign currency along the oil value chain.