Venezuela Seizes Chemical Companies

Excoriating the firms’ profits, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has authorized the government expropriation of Koch Industries’ fertilizer affiliate FertiNitro and a local producer of chemicals and lubricants, Venoco. “For a long time, we have been working to continue constructing the socialist mother country and the sovereignty of the country,” the president declared on his blog. Koch owns about 35% of FertiNitro. The rest is owned by Italy’s Snamprogetti and Venezuelan state chemical firm Pequiven. According to Fitch Ratings, the company can make 3,600 metric tons of ammonia and 4,400 metric tons of urea per day at its plant in Venezuela’s Jose Petrochemical Complex. Privately owned Venoco makes automotive lubricants and linear alkylbenzene sulfonates. Chávez charges that Venoco sells lubricants for “four to five times” what they cost to make.