Feb 2 (Reuters) – Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA’s workers and retirees are hoping oil-industry reform sparked by U.S. intervention last month will increase the purchasing power of their eroding wages and pension payments, but their confidence is measured.
Some loyal PDVSA employees and retirees in and around the oil center of Maracaibo in Zulia state told Reuters they anticipate a turnaround would make their jobs, wages and pension payments more secure and valuable.
“Those of us who are still here have stayed out of love for our work. We’ve waited many years to see our oil better paid,” said a manager with more than 20 years of experience at PDVSA, who asked not to be named. “Most people are willing to work, though there is still a lot of fear.”
But PDVSA retiree Jose Luis Galindo in nearby Ciudad Ojeda believes the economic boost will be modest. “People in general are living an illusion created by U.S. propaganda about the economic boom Venezuela will supposedly see,” he said.
The changes follow U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro last month and U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for Washington to direct the oil-exporting country from afar. He proposed a $100 billion energy reconstruction plan and has repeatedly said the overhaul will be positive for Venezuela and its people.
The country has suffered a long economic decline and analysts estimate that inflation reached 400% last year.
An energy-industry reform that passed last week is set to cut taxes, grant autonomy to private producers and allow the transfer of assets. Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who has made oil sales deals with the U.S. since Maduro’s ouster, supports the plan.
The reform is aimed at raising oil and gas production and drawing foreign investment to Venezuela’s industry, which has been state-controlled for two decades since the government expropriated assets of foreign companies including U.S. giants Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips.
Some workers and retirees hope new investment will increase both oil output and their pay, but the path ahead is far from secure.
In Ciudad Ojeda, the landscape is dominated by housing complexes built in the 1960s and 1970s for oil workers. Not all residents are convinced Venezuela is heading toward an oil boom.
Global oil firms are “not coming to rescue (PDVSA), they’re coming to invest to open up fields,” said Ender Perea, 71, who spent 38 years at the state oil company.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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