Venezuela wants to beat Exxon
Venezuela on Wednesday vowed to defeat Exxon Mobil Corp. in a legal battle as the U.S.-based oil company seeks to freeze Venezuelan assets in the U.S. and Europe.
Speaking to a crowd of oil workers at an outdoor rally, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez vowed to mount "a defense of the nation’s interests."
"We’re going to come out of this battle successful," Ramirez told the crowd in the eastern state of Anzoategui. "Exxon Mobil isn’t pleased with our government. It matters little to our government what Exxon Mobil thinks."
The state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, announced Tuesday that it has stopped selling crude to the U.S. company.
Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) is locked in a dispute over the nationalization of its Venezuelan oil ventures that has seen President Hugo Chavez threaten to cut off all oil sales to the United States - a warning that many analysts call unlikely given his government’s dependence on revenues from the U.S.
The company is challenging the nationalization of one of four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin, one of the world’s richest oil deposits.
A British court issued an injunction last month temporarily freezing up to $12 billion of PDVSA’s assets.
Exxon Mobil also has secured an "order of attachment" from a U.S. court in New York for about $300 million in cash held by PDVSA. A hearing to confirm the order was to be held in New York on Wednesday.
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