Rafael Darío Ramírez Carreño is a Venezuelan engineer and politician. He is currently the president of the Venezuelan state-owned petroleum-extraction company PDVSA. In the past, Ramírez had also served as the Venezuelan Minister of Energy and Mines for a time.
Ramírez was appointed to that position in July 2002 by the current Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez. Ramirez had been the chief officer of Venezuela's "Enegas", a petroleum and power-genertion watchdog and regulatory agency. Ramírez, a mechanical engineer by his university education, has had wide-ranging experience in the design, development, coordination, and management of engineering projects for the Venezuelan petroleum industry. Ramírez served also as the founding president of Enagas, the national regulatory agency that was set up to be responsible for establishing the national plan for natural gas production and distribution.
Hence, Ramírez was responsible for the design, development, and promotion of national policies for natural gas. Next, he was promoted to the status of Minister of Energy and Mines. The Ministry of Energy and Mines became Ministry of Energy and Petroleum in January 2005. On November 20, 2004, Ramírez was selected at the president of the company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), a position that he has held concurrently with that of the Minister of Energy and Petroleum.
Ramírez graduated from engineering school at the Los Andes University, and he has also earned his Master of Science degree in the field of energy production and distribution.