Adamant: Hardest metal
Thursday, December 19, 2002

To All PDVSA Customers
Posted by click at 4:42 PM in Miscelaneous

Good afternoon, following we wish to transmit to the Venezuelan nation an institutional message from the Directors of all the operating affiliates of Petroleos de Venezuela, leaders of business units and representative majority of the top and general management of the Corporation. Joining me in the podium the members of the Board of directors of PDVSA Petroleo: Jose Rafael Paz, Vice-president; Nelson Nava, Director; Luis Vielma; Executive director of Exploration and Production; Raul Aleman, Executive Director of Refining, Supply and Trading; Fernando Puig, President of PDVSA Gas, Luis Leonardi, Vice-president of Pequiven and Maria Lizardo, President of Bariven. Also, the directors and corporate managers of the main businesses are present. Petroleos de Venezuela is a highly complex and technified Corporation by nature of its operations and the magnitude of its importance in the nationaland international context. This Company counts on 40 thousand own employees and 20 thousands contracted, who add a valuable and incalculable capital of knowledge and experience in the development of inherent activities to the oil business.

PDVSA develop activities in all the value chain of of the oil industry in Venezuela and countries of the world: product and and storage, transport, refining, production, crude exploration and hydrocarbons trade, as well as gas businesses, petrochemicals, Orimulsion and coal. The productive and safe development of all these businesses in Venezuela, like in any other part of the world, requires knowledge and specific expertise from highly specialized professionals and technicians. This industry does not accept improvisations that put further on risk, energy supply to the society, safety of its workers, their communities and their facilities. The Venezuelan oil industry has invested numerous numbers in infrastructure and state of the art technology, today vital patrimony of all Venezuelans. The Directors of all affiliates of PDVSA, jointly with the managerial team of this company, consider that the events which have taken place in the last days in the corporation, based in decisions that we did not share with the Presidency of PDVSA, seizures threatening and causing considerable damages to the patrimony of the company, aggravating the crisis in the country. It is our duty and responsibility to address the country by this means specially, our workers, expressing our position as follows:

  1. In light of the critical situation in the country, which lead a considerable sector of the population, workers in the industry, contractorsand other companies to participate in a civic and national stoppage, which has lead to an almost total paralyzation of the operations of the oil industry.

  2. In an attempt to reactivate the operations, the president of PDVSA, Ali Rodriguez Araque, supported by unqualified personnel, has made positions assigments and removals in top operative management level of affiliated companies, without complying to requirements as established in these compamies Statutes, and against the consecrated principles and values of merit and participative management as established in the internal policies and procedures of the corporation.

  3. The President of PDVSA and his new advisers have requested and allowed the presence of the Armny within oil facilities, putting in danger the safety of the workers, the neighboring facilities and communities. Furthermore, he has granted access to people strange to the corporation, lacking technical capacity and experience, with the purpose of attempting tooperate those complex facilities, thus increasing serious safety risks and unauhtorized access to confidential commercial information of the corporation, which could be used with non-ethical aims, causing a remarkable damage for the company and the Nation.

  4. Among other actions, it is worth noting the unjustified arrests of our personnel, forcing operators under pressure to make tasks against their will, the take over by the Navy of some ships of PDV Marina, actions that could cause important damages to the facilities that are patrimony of all the Venezuelans. Examples of this are the five most relevant accidents in the last days and known to the public by the media.

  5. As a result of the call made by the President of PDVSA, thru televized media, asking groups of people for a supposed “defense” of our facilities,numerous violent groups in many operational areas and administrative buildings have appeared, threatening the workers and altering to the tranquillity and security of the operations. We want to emphasize that without the voluntary aid of all the payrolls of PDVSA, the normalization and maintenance of such complex operations as the inherent ones to this oil company, cannot to be possible.

  6. The Directors of the affiliates whose operations have been affected by the referred actions have pointed it out to Mr. Ali Rodriguez Araque in diverse opportunities, warning him of the dangers of the actions taken and demanding respect from him to their Management. All these warnings have been totally ignored. Also, legal recourse has been taken where referred facts have occured in operational areas, without even obtaining decisions from competent authorities. More over, in an attempt to preserve the governability and safety of the operations, we have instructed our workers to maintain its natural lines of report. Based in all the above facts, we have decided:

1, TO SUPPORT the natural leaders of the different businesses and operational areas in their functions of preserving the safety of people andthe facilities, ratifying our position to help channel and solve any situation in which they are put under risk by way of threats or fear.

  1. TO EXPRESS OUR RESPECT and SUPPORT to the oil and petrochemicalworkers,as well as staff and executive employees, all Merchant marine fleet personnel, in their individual attitude and decision in the conflict facing the country.

  2. TO REJECT the dismissals of our colleagues, all of them VENEZUELANS of high capacity, integrity and corporative culture, which far from contributing to a solution, it actually deepens the crisis.

  3. TO MAKE a CALL to the National Armed Forces to maintain an institutionalattitude to help preserve the safety of our workers and the patrimony of the company.

  4. TO MAKE a CALL to the regional State, City and Local authorities, so that they guarantee the legal framework and preserve the safety of the communities bordering the operational areas.

  5. TO MAKE a CALL to the judges of the Republic so that they are diligenthandling and quick deciding in all legal claims and actions submitted in their courts .

  6. TO MAKE a CALL to our national and international clients, as well as our suppliers, so that they make sure they adhere and fullfill all norms and procedures of the corporation in their commercial relations with PDVSA and their affiliates.

  7. TO REJECT the disqualifying statements expressed by Ali Rodriguez Araque, towards top management of the Corporation and its workers for considering them offensive and thoughtless.

WE MAKE A CALL TO ALL WORKERS TO MAINTAIN THE UNITY AND SENSE OF PURPOSE THAT HAVE ALWAYS CHARACTERIZED US, SINCE IT WILL ALLOW TO PRESERVE The INSTITUTION IN BENEFIT OF OUR COUNTRY. THE SOLUTION TO THE SERIOUS SITUATIONTHAT WE FACE, IS IN THE HANDS OF THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE AND DIFFERENT FACTORS OF CIVIL SOCIETY. CONSEQUENTLY, WE MAKE AN URGENT CALL TO ALL INVOLVED INSTITUTIONS TO REACH AN AGREEMENT BY MEANS OF A CONSENTUAL ELECTORAL EXIT.

Thank you very much. Jorge Kamkoff

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