More investments may increase oil production: Platts

Robert Perkins, Senior News Correspondent, Platts gives us his analysis on what the impact of Hugo Chavez's death will be on the Venezuelan oil industry as well as the global oil markets.

Perkins said that Hugo Chavez's influence has been extremely beneficial for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) so far. Chavez has been a key player in OPEC in pushing for production cutbacks or production constraint in order to support oil prices. He further adds, "The market is perhaps expecting - in the case of more benign government - a production increase down the road with more investments but it could take a long time". According to Perkins, there was a fairly muted reaction to Chavez's death. The jury is still out on what will happen. The market expects a succession government which has been clearly blessed by Chavez who had won the popular vote at the end of last year. The oil policies and the ideology and framework around PDVSA state oil company is expected to continue unabated.