22 separate foreign oil companies, including international oil majors like Chevron, BP, Total, and Repsol-YPF. Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela sharply diverged from previous administrations' economic policies. PDVSA is now used as a cash-cow and as an employer-of-last-resort; foreign oil businesses were nationalised and the government refused to pay compensation. Estimates of Venezuelan oil production vary. Venezuela claims its oil production is over , but oil industry analysts and the U.S. Energy Information Administration believe it to be much lower. In addition to other reporting irregularities, much of its production is extra-heavy oil, which may or may not be included with conventional oil in the various production estimates. The U.S. Energy Information Agency estimated Venezuela's oil production in December 2006 was only , a 24% decline from its peak of 3.3 million in 1997. Recently, Venezuela has pushed the creation of regional oil initiatives for the Caribbean (Petrocaribe), the Andean region (Petroandino), and South America (Petrosur), and Latin America (Petroamerica). The initiatives include assistance for oil developments, investments in refining capacity, and preferential oil pricing. The most developed of these three is the Petrocaribe initiative, with 13 nations signing a preliminary agreement in 2005. Under Petrocaribe, Venezuela will offer crude oil and petroleum products to Caribbean nations under preferential terms and prices, with Jamaica as the first nation to sign on in August 2005. See also Chronology of world oil market events Energy superpower Fossil fuels lobby Geostrategy in Central Asia Antonia Juhasz The New Great Game Oil imperialism theories Oil reserves Oil Shockwave Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Society of Petroleum Engineers References External links Oil, Politics & Bribes The connection between VECO oil services company and Alaskan lawmakers Geopolitics