Venezuela state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela said Friday it has completed a previously announced plan to seize ConocoPhillips' (COP) stake in a joint-venture natural-gas project with Chevron Corp. (CVX).

"The transfer of these rights allows for the creation of a joint-venture firm for the production of natural gas, with PdVSA holding a 61% majority stake, and Chevron 39%," PdVSA said in a statement.

The joint venture is for the Block 2 portion of the multi-block Deltana offshore project, located in a continental shelf extension of the Orinoco River delta along the country's eastern coast.

PdVSA officials said last year it would take over ConocoPhillips stake and that the U.S. company would no longer be involved in these natural-gas ventures since it is now involved in arbitration proceedings with PdVSA.

Houston-based ConocoPhillips, the U.S.'s third-largest integrated energy company, filed for arbitration against Venezuela last year, seeking compensation for the state takeover of its other assets in the Orinoco river basin.

In Friday's statement, PdVSA said it "only recognized audited real expenses realized during the exploratory phase," which it said has been the model used for compensation. It did not mention a dollar figure or any payment plan for compensation.

Officials at ConocoPhillips were not immediately available for comment.

PdVSA said ConocoPhillips and Chevron had begun exploring the block in 2003 and said they found more than 7 billion cubic feet of gas reserves. The PdVSA-Chevron joint venture is expected to produce 750 million cubic feet of gas per day, it added.

Venezuela has taken over many privately owned firms, foreign and local, as part of President Hugo Chavez' efforts to transform the country's economy toward a "21st Century Socialism" model.

-By Dan Molinski, Dow Jones Newswires; 58-212-284-5651; dan.molinski@dowjones.com