CARACAS, Thursday August 28, 2008 | Update
LNG industry is highly fragmented, as it comprises more than 97 small and medium enterprises (Photo: Enio Perdomo / File)
Economy
While the plenary session of the Venezuelan National Assembly
Wednesday gave their initial approval to the draft organic
law on the restructuring of the liquid fuel domestic market,
under which fuel distribution is nationalized, the President's
Office is now preparing a similar bill, this time to reserve
to the State the right to distribute nationwide liquefied
natural gas, that is, the gas supplied in cylinders to 85
percent of Venezuelan households.
The Minister of Energy and Petroleum and President of Petróleos
de Venezuela (Pdvsa) told El Universal that the current brands
would be replaced by a brand called Pdvsa Gas Comunal, one
of the seven new subsidiaries organized by Pdvsa last year.
This new company will be responsible for nationalization of
gas supply companies Vengas and Tropigas.
Consequently, private companies will be involved only in
the last link of the chain, i.e. gas retail sales. They will
have to share this business with the community councils, as
previously announced.
11:00 AM. Economy. Based on the official data, more and more families failed to get out of poverty in 2008; the exclusion status of more people moved faster and fewer people are on their way to overcome this situation. According to the data provided by the official National Statistics Institute (INE), last year the poorest homes in the country recorded an average monthly income of USD 401.82, whereas the food basket amounted to 417.77