Venezuela asks ExxonMobil to talk, drop legal cases

CARACAS, Feb 19, 2008 (AFP) – Venezuela has asked US oil giant ExxonMobil to resume World Bank-sponsored talks to resolve a nationalization dispute and to drop legal cases in New York and London, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said Tuesday.

“We have heard various messages from Exxon — what we are asking is that we return to the situation as it was under arbitration” under the auspices of the World Bank’s mediation body, Ramirez said.


The move toward dialogue came almost a week after Venezuela lost a legal battle with ExxonMobil over the leftist Venezuelan government’s nationalization of key oil fields in the Orinoco basin that included two ExxonMobil operations.

ExxonMobil says it has won court orders in New York, London, the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles freezing some 12 billion dollars of PDVSA assets in those jurisdictions in compensation for the expropriations.

AFP