ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways in which Congress exercises its control over Petroleos de Venezuela and the extent to which the latter is accountable to the former for its performance. Congress was a key policy actor in the outcome of the internationalisation policy. The chapter argues that although the confrontation was significant between, on the one hand Congress, and the executive and the oil State-owned enterprise, the implicit conflict-avoidance principle which characterised the political system in Venezuela was not challenged by the dispute. Many Congress members, however, considered that the Veba Oel contract was of the utmost importance to the ‘national interest’ and that therefore it should have required legislative approval. Thereafter, an impasse in the government’s policy-making structure originated as Congress members set out to determine the legitimacy of the contract. In the confrontation between Congress and industry policy-makers over the Veba Oel case the major opposing issues at the centre of oil policy-making sprang to the surface.
