Baker Institute’s Monaldi available to discuss naming of general to head Venezuela’s oil firm

EXPERT ALERT

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu  

Baker Institute’s Monaldi available to discuss naming of general to head Venezuela’s oil firm

HOUSTON – (Nov. 28, 2017) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has named a military leader, Maj. Gen. Manuel Quevedo, to head the state oil company, PDVSA, and the country’s energy ministry.

Credit: Shutterstock.com/Rice University

Francisco Monaldi, an expert in the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is available to discuss these developments and their implications ahead of the 173rd OPEC Meeting in Vienna Nov. 30.

Quevedo’s appointment comes as six senior executives at Citgo, PDVSA’s refining subsidiary in the United States, were recently arrested and charged with corruption. This comes on top of dozens of PDVSA officials being charged with corruption over the past several months.

“You have corruption everywhere (in Venezuela), but clearly only a few are targeted,” Monaldi told the New York Times. “Why did this happen now? It’s hard to understand.”

Monaldi, the fellow in Latin American energy policy at the Center for Energy Studies, is a leading scholar on the politics and economics of the oil industry and oil wealth management in Latin America and developing countries. He has consulted with numerous international institutions, governments and companies, including The World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Inter-American Development Bank, CAF Development Bank of Latin America, PDVSA, Shell, Total, Statoil, IHS, Wood Mackenzie, Ministry of Petroleum of Saudi Arabia, the governments of Kazakhstan and Albania, Natural Resource Governance Institute, Stanford Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, Eurasia Group and Medley Global Advisors.

To schedule an interview with Monaldi, contact Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775. The Baker Institute has a radio and television studio available.

-30-

Related materials:

Monaldi bio: www.bakerinstitute.org/experts/francisco-j-monaldi.

Follow the Baker Institute via Twitter @BakerInstitute.

Follow the Center for Energy Studies via Twitter @CES_Baker_Inst.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Founded in 1993, Rice University’s Baker Institute ranks among the top five university-affiliated think tanks in the world. As a premier nonpartisan think tank, the institute conducts research on domestic and foreign policy issues with the goal of bridging the gap between the theory and practice of public policy. The institute’s strong track record of achievement reflects the work of its endowed fellows, Rice University faculty scholars and staff, coupled with its outreach to the Rice student body through fellow-taught classes — including a public policy course — and student leadership and internship programs. Learn more about the institute at www.bakerinstitute.org or on the institute’s blog, http://blogs.chron.com/bakerblog.