September 30, 2005
PDVSA and Enarsa will buy Rhasa distributor for US$92mn

(BNamericas.com) - "Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his Argentine counterpart Néstor Kirchner have signed an agreement for their respective state oil firms PDVSA and Enarsa to buy Argentine refining and distribution company Ruthilex Hidrocarburos Argentinos (Rhasa) for US$92mn, local papers reported.

The presidents signed the accord in Brazil's capital Brasilia during the South American presidential summit. Rhasa owns about 150 service stations in Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Cordoba, Mendoza and Entre Rios provinces, and the Campana refinery and fuel storage facilities.

The PDV/Enarsa partnership, as it is known, will carry out due diligence of the assets to finalize the terms of the deal, papers reported.

Venezuela is also negotiating a deal with Spanish firm Repsol YPF whereby that company would supply crude to the Campana refinery from its fields in Argentina in return for obtaining a concession to produce crude in Venezuela's Orinoco belt, papers reported. PDV/Enarsa currently operate two service stations in Buenos Aires.

With the purchase of Rhasa, the partnership will control 1% of the national fuels market, which is still far off Chávez's goal announced early this year to control 12% of the market and operate 600 service stations in Argentina by end-2005.

PDV/Enarsa could also buy 163 service stations owned by Sol, the local subsidiary of Uruguay's state oil company Ancap, newspaper Clarin quoted Argentina's planning minister Julio De Vido as saying. In comments to the press, both Chávez and Kirchner emphasized the deal as a step towards regional integration in line with Venezuela's PetroSur initiative (...)".