Possession is 9/10ths of the Law or Lack Thereof
Even malevolent clowns know that.
Venezuela Shrinks Nationalization Payment to Exxon
Venezuela’s PDVSA said on Monday it will pay Exxon Mobil $255 million in compensation for nationalized assets—less than a third of what the U.S. oil giant said it was awarded by an arbitration panel.
The South American OPEC member’s state oil company issued a defiant statement saying it was deducting debts owed by Exxon, including PDVSA’s repurchase of bonds linked to the nationalized project.
…Paying only $255 million would leave Exxon [XOM 84.76 -0.51 (-0.6%) ] with only a fraction of the more than $10 billion it originally sought in compensation, and it would be a major victory for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that could give oil-producing nations more power in nationalization disputes with companies.
But Exxon may still come away with a larger payment because it is pursuing a separate case against Venezuela before the World Bank’s arbitration tribunal. Both cases deal with the 2007 nationalization of the Cerro Negro project, in the vast Orinoco heavy crude belt, one of the world’s biggest crude reserves.
Like Daffy Duck in the treasure cave, “Mine, Mine, it’s ALL MINE!” means more when your fat feathered ass is ON top of the bullion pile.
There was one paragraph that gave me a teensy, tiny moment’s pause, though. Imagine for a second, if you will, no Chavez vs. Exxon. This taking aim at administration critics/thorns-in-one’s-side/KoolAde-refusers sounds familiar…
…”If Exxon Mobil continues with this second arbitration and its efforts to secure exorbitant compensation for the nationalization, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will take all necessary steps to defend itself,” PDVSA said on Monday.
The often vicious legal dispute, during which Exxon briefly managed to freeze as much as $12 billion in PDVSA assets, underlined the ideological differences between the U.S. oil giant and Chavez’s socialist administration.
Or am I just jaundiced by three years of The One and HIS State Machinery?
Biz, People, Politics, World Stuff | tree hugging sister | 
January 3, 2012 9:01 am
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About the only difference I can see between Chavez & Obama is that Chavez is honest about his intentions.
They’re lucky to get the $255 mil right now. Actually, Venezuela needs them back because their oil production if going south rapidly under the miracles of socialism.
Hope Brazil doesn’t come in there to help them out.
I’d say that Chavez is sincere about his intentions. Or open. But I’d never apply “honest” to that weasel.
Nor to Obama, for that matter.
JeffS, don’t confuse ‘honest’ with ‘good’.
Yojimbo, they don’t need Exxon. Chavez can get all the help he needs from his good buddies the Iranians.
Exxon should file suits attaching every asset Venezuela has outside of the country itself. It should bring a suit to seize every drop of oil Chavez tries to sell on the world market. It should sue every Venezuelan offical it can in every court on the planet, and make a Worker’s Paradise of their lives until Venezuela settles with them for a fair amount.