Chavez approves oil industry strengthening plan

CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, still in Cuba recovering from a Dec 11 surgery, has approved a plan to strengthen the state-run oil company Petroleum of Venezuela (PDVSA), the country's Vice-President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday.

At a ceremony marking the 218th birth anniversary of national hero Antonio Jose de Sucre, Maduro revealed that over the past days, Chavez has been analyzing the situation of PDVSA, a main industrial pillar of Venezuela.

Venezuela's Vice-President Nicolas Maduro shows a letter from President Hugo Chavez during a ceremony in Cumana in the eastern state of Sucre, Feb 3, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

"Commander Chavez approved the plan of PDVSA's strengthening process," said Maduro in a speech broadcast by the official television channel VTV.

The plan aims to strengthen PDVSA's operations to tap the oil reserves in the northwest region of Zulia, noted the vice president.

Rafael Ramirez, Venezuelan oil and mining minister and president of PDVSA, presented this plan to Chavez for his consideration, Maduro added.

Maduro displayed the approval document signed by Chavez before TV cameras. The document was said to have been brought back by the president of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, who returned from Havana early Sunday morning.

"We have a president who is ruling and together with him we are a Revolution holding the political power," stressed Maduro.