Venezuela's Energy and Petroleum Minister Rafael Ramirez said Wednesday that his country will firmly defend the sovereignty of its energy sources and fair prices for petroleum.

At a forum of Latin American and Caribbean energy officials, Ramirez warned that transnational firms intended to control the non-renewable resources of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Noting that there is a confrontation between socialism and capitalism, he said Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, is the epicenter of the struggle between the two systems.

With the swearing-in of President Hugo Chavez in 1999, he said, the situation has been put under control and the government decided to defend the country's non-renewable resources.

In another development, Ramirez said the state-run oil company PDVSA will begin paying foreign oil firms in the local currency instead of the US dollar to bring operations in line with government-imposed currency controls.

Although Venezuela imposed strict currency controls in early 2003 to curb rampant capital flight, the PDVSA had been reimbursing contracted foreign oil companies in US dollars.

However, Ramirez said on the sidelines of the energy forum Wednesday that foreign oil firms operating with the PDVSA will now be paid in bolivars.

Venezuela signed 32 operating contracts with foreign and local companies in the 1990s, when there were no currency controls in place.

Chavez said Sunday that he had ordered a halt to the reimbursement of oil firms in US dollars.

Source: Xinhua