Venezuela Expanding Oil Production
The Venezuelan government has allotted 12 billion dollars to turn Petroquimica de Venezuela SA (PEQUIVEN) into Petrochemicals Corporation of Venezuela, in an effort to expand production of oil byproducts.

More than a change of name, it was a change of concept, as the Petrochemicals Corp. will triple production during the next six years through investments, official sources said.

PEQUIVEN, which was created in 1977 to replace the Venezuelan Institute of Petrochemicals, produces raw material such as ethylene, propylene, polyethylene, fertilizers and plastic products.

The new corporation´s main goal is to replace imports, a contradiction inherited from past governments, since Venezuela is a major crude exporter and possesses huge reserves.

The present administration considers that previous administrations wasted those reserves and only used them to funnel money into the national oligarchy and obstruct domestic development.

However, the government toils today to solve that situation through a program that Venezuelan officials have called "planting oil."

Following the building of various facilities and the renovation and modernization of others, oil output is expected to climb from 11.5 million tons per year to 32 millions from 2006 to 2012.

Together with prospects for production increases and export diversification, revenues will target the nations´ underprivileged.

For example, state-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) set up cooperatives in the eastern region, providing jobs for 10,000 people.

In 2006, 150,000 houses are expected to be built to improve housing and living conditions, which is one of the sectors with most problems, and 80 percent of the network of free health services for people with low income is prepared, according to officials in the field.

Chavez has repeatedly assured that the fight against inequality and injustice, and for equity for all, is the core of the revolution in Venezuela, heading toward the Socialism of the 21st Century.