Exclusive: Venezuela signs oil deals similar to ones rolled back under Chavez – document

The effort signals that President Nicolas Maduro, who is struggling under a hyper-inflationary economic meltdown and fast-declining oil output, is willing to reverse the aggressive efforts of his predecessor – who died in 2013 – to expand the state’s role in the energy industry of the OPEC nation. The government had already announced a vague plan to boost oil output with the help of seven companies. The plan was described during a televised event on Aug. 28 in which representatives of those companies, during a ceremony including Maduro, signed “joint service agreements” with PDVSA.