Wonder where this will end: (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/02/07/venezuela.exxon/index.html)
QuoteExxon case leads to freeze of $12 billion in Venezuelan assets
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Exxon Mobil has obtained a court order freezing up to $12 billion of Venezuela's state-owned oil company's worldwide assets after the government of President Hugo Chavez forced the company out of two joint ventures last year, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.
Britain's High Court barred Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. from selling assets worldwide up to $12 billion, Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross said.
The judgment stems from Venezuela's June decision to take control of two projects it had entered into with Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company.
One, the Cerro Negro Project, was projected to yield 1.5 billion barrels of oil over 35 years.
Ross said Exxon Mobil also has obtained attachment orders against PdVSA from courts in the Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean islands seeking another $12 billion each, and is seeking another attachment order of approximately $300 million against the Venezuelan company in a federal court in New York.
In a January 24th filing in New York, PdVSA argued that Exxon Mobil "has failed to sustain its burden of establishing that an arbitration award may be rendered ineffectual without the provisional remedy of attachment."
In a statement, Exxon Mobil said the orders are subject to further review by the courts and would not comment further on legal proceedings.
How big of a chunk of Venezuela's oil revenues is that?
The real question to me is are we seeing the signs of a cascade failure from the Chavez regime? First the failure of his president for life run, now the sudden blow to the old wallet...
Also, if the new white house administration mellows the fuck out on latin america and starts to address the needs of the people of the country a teeny bit better than they have in the past (i.e. it's not just about resources and drugs), Chavez loses a large part of his raison d'être. How he plays it is yet to be seen but he's made a killing off of taking advantage of the Bush administration's shortsightedness.
I don't think it will matter. He's got at least a generation of greivances built up... Consider the current situation between Korea and Japan... even though Japan hasn't done anything to Korea in 50+ years, its still pretty easy to rile up the average Korean by mentioning Japanese invasions to them.
While US/Latin America relations are no where near that level, the ability of people to hold grudges, particularly when reminded by demogouges, is impressive.
Hugo Chavez will end in fire. Preferably nuclear fire, but other kinds of fire are acceptable.