A Curacao court has authorized ConocoPhillips to seize about $636 million in assets belonging to Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA due to the 2007 nationalization of the U.S. oil major’s projects in Venezuela.
The legal action was the latest in the Caribbean to enforce a $2 billion arbitration award by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) over the nationalization.
The court decision, first reported by Caribbean media outlet Antilliaans Dagblad on Saturday, says Curacao can attach “oil or oil products on ships and on bank deposits.”
Conoco and PDVSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters reported on Friday that PDVSA was preparing to shut down the 335,000 barrel-per-day Isla refinery it operates in Curacao amid threats by Conoco to seize cargoes sent to resupply
the facility.
In 1995 Venezuela was a beautiful thriving Country…..then His Excellency Hugo Chavez started talking about “large evil miners” VS “small miners” . He took away the big mines and gave them to the “small guy” . He got the votes and was very popular. Then armed with that victory he began to Nationalize all large industries including oil.
Fast forward and there is no mining of value in Venezuela, no oil production generating net value, no autos being made, no food, no drugs, no life, did I mention no food?……. The moral of the story being……that Governments cannot run business effectively and the “small man” cannot run large industry unless he becomes the “large capability man” .