Exxon Mobil awarded $908 million in Venezuela dispute

Associated Press
January 1, 2012, 3:45 p.m.

An international arbitration body has awarded Exxon Mobil Corp. nearly $908 million in a dispute with Venezuela over compensation for the nationalization of its assets, the company said.

Exxon Mobil sought arbitration after President Hugo Chavez's government nationalized an oil project in the country in 2007.

The decision by the International Chamber of Commerce confirmed that state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela "does have a contractual liability to Exxon Mobil," said Patrick McGinn, spokesman for the Irving, Texas-based company. He said the award is for $907,588,000.

Venezuelan government officials did not respond to messages on Sunday seeking comment.

"The dispute is not over Venezuela's power to expropriate assets, but rather the failure of PDVSA to comply with contractual provisions to compensate Exxon Mobil," McGinn said.

The U.S. oil company has not publicly released figures on how much it was seeking in compensation. McGinn said the company received the decision Friday and was reviewing its more than 400 pages.

Exxon Mobil still has another arbitration case pending against Venezuela before the World Bank-affiliated International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes. More than a dozen other arbitration cases involving Venezuela are also pending as companies seek billions of dollars in compensation in response to nationalizations by Chavez's leftist government.

The Caracas, Venezuela-based consulting firm Ecoanalitica estimated recently, before the latest Exxon Mobil decision, that the bulk of the government's nationalizations involved more than $33.7 billion in assets, including about $23 billion in outstanding obligations.

Venezuela has reached negotiated settlements on payments to some other companies.

Last month, Mexican cement company Cemex said Venezuela had agreed to pay $600 million for the 2008 takeover of the company's operations in the country.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,5203576.story