Venezuela requests help from U.S. senator

Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.S. has asked Sen. Richard Lugar to press Exxon Mobil Corp. to drop legal measures that have frozen $12 billion in assets worldwide.

“Through tactics that can only be compared with the very discredited strategy of pre-emptive war, Exxon Mobil has clearly violated the terms of the arbitration process,” Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.S., said in a letter to the Indiana Republican that was released by the embassy Friday. Lugar is the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.


At issue are court orders that Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil company, obtained in four countries freezing more than $12 billion in Venezuelan bank accounts and properties. The orders were part of Exxon Mobil’s effort to get compensation in arbitration for last year’s seizure of a Venezuelan oil field by the government of President Hugo Chavez.

Alvarez described Exxon Mobil’s demand for $12 billion “clearly absurd,” given the size of the company’s investment in the disputed Cerro Negro oil project. In private discussions prior to the court orders, Exxon Mobil’s demand never exceeded $5 billion, the ambassador said.

Houston Chronicle