Venezuela's top lawmaker says oil reform will add partnership model

Jan 20 (Reuters) - Venezuela's top lawmaker Jorge Rodriguez said on Tuesday that a reform of the country's main oil law expected to be debated for the first time this week will be based on a partnership structure first introduced during President Nicolas Maduro's administration, though he provided no details.

The country's interim president, Rodriguez's sister Delcy Rodriguez, told lawmakers last week that the government supported changes to the hydrocarbons law to boost foreign investment. The law has a single contract model of joint ventures controlled by state company PDVSA, but the country has been introducing so-called 'productive participation contracts' for new partnerships in recent years, whose terms have not been fully disclosed.

Those contracts are "a fundamental element to be expressed in the law's reform," Rodriguez told journalists.