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MANAGER: LUIS GIUSTI (int'l edition)If you want a good reason or two why OPEC is on its last legs, talk to Luis E. Giusti. Few executives have done more to change the global oil industry outlook than the 54-year-old president of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the second-largest oil company in the world. Since 1990, Giusti has spearheaded an ambitious policy to open the state-owned monopoly to private companies and to ramp up oil production. Giusti sold the opening-up despite deep-rooted nationalistic opposition to such a move. He accomplished this by making it a significant part of a broader vision for assuring Venezuela's future as a strategic global oil supplier. His aim: to double production over the next 10 years, to around 6 million barrels daily. Garrulous and candid, Giusti mobilized support with a campaign of talking to ministers and politicians, lobbying congressional committees, making speeches, and writing articles. Today, dozens of foreign companies are drilling in Venezuela's prolific oilfields. While fears are increasing that economic distress will lead to backsliding from free-market policies, Giusti's reforms in the oil industry are likely to survive any backlash--and to serve as a successful benchmark for oil openings that are under way in other countries such as Brazil. Populist former coup leader Hugo Chavez, the front-runner in Venezuela's presidential election campaign, promises to fire Giusti and to ''review'' the deals with foreign companies. But with or without Giusti, it's unlikely that Chavez or any President could roll back Giusti's oil policy. That's partly because PDVSA under Giusti and predecessors has earned Venezuelans' confidence as a well-managed company. That is in stark contrast with most state-run operations. What's more important, Giusti fundamentally changed the way Venezuelans think about how their society can benefit from their rich natural endowment. This is a crucial example for other Latin reformers. Born inan oil field camp, Giusti earned a master's degree in engineering from the University of Tulsa. He worked for Royal Dutch/Shell Group in Venezuela until the 1975 industry nationalization. After 32 years in torrid oil fields and refineries, he is still familiarly known to workers as el catire, for his fair hair and light complexion. He denies any national political ambitions, although his name has been mentioned as a future presidential candidate. But inside or outside public life, Giusti seems likely to continue to influence Venezuelan energy and industrial policy. And his basic reforms seem Certain to endure.
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Updated Oct. 15, 1998 by bwwebmaster
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