CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday named geophysicist Eulegio Del Pino to lead state oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL], pushing oil czar Rafael Ramirez from a job he had held for a decade.

Asdrubal Chavez, cousin of the late president Hugo Chavez, also replaced Ramirez as oil and mining minister. Rodolfo Marco was tapped to run the newly created vice presidency of Economy and Finance, also eliminating Ramirez’s former job of economy vice president.

The removal of Ramirez from key economic posts comes as the country flirts with recession, inflation soars above 60 percent and Venezuelans struggle with shortages of basic goods.

That said, Maduro did not mention any changes to hot-button economic issues, which include tight currency controls and generous gasoline subsidies. Ramirez had in recent months said Venezuela should work towards unifying its exchange rates and raising the price of gasoline.

Many market observers had been hoping a shake-up at the helm of the South American OPEC country’s oil industry could translate into substantial changes in the energy sector.

Stanford-educated Del Pino was PDVSA’s vice president of exploration and production. He will take the helm of a firm blessed with the world’s largest oil reserves that has nonetheless seen production slump for six consecutive years as it struggles to get new projects off the ground.

Asdrubal Chavez, a chemical engineer, had also worked for PDVSA.

(Reporting by Caracas newsroom; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Nick Macfie)

-thestar