Oil and Gas

Venezuela’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Rafael Ramirez, announced yesterday that the country’s proven oil reserves have been increased to 130 billion barrels, a 30% increase over previous official figures.

Venezuela expects to appear in court in the Netherlands before the end of the month in order to challenge an asset freeze obtained by the world’s largest oil company, ExxonMobil Corp against state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced a new tax on extraordinary oil profits Monday, the revenue of which will help fund the expansion of health care programs known as the Barrio Adentro “missions,” which bring health care to marginalized communities with the help of Cuban doctors.

Thursday marked the deadline for ExxonMobil to undo the damage it had done to the international reputation of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA by pursuing a $12 billion freeze of PDVSA assets in early February during international arbitration in a dispute over a nationalized Orinoco Oil Belt project.

A British Judge declared today that the freezing of $12 billion in assets of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA shall be revoked. The decision is a major defeat for the world's largest oil company, ExxonMobil, which had won the temporary asset freeze in a dispute with PDVSA over the nationalization of an Exxon project.

Solidarity campaigners rallied on Tuesday March 4th to defend Venezuela's oil resources from greedy transnational ExxonMobil at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London.

Venezuela's Energy Minister, Rafael Ramirez, called yesterday for U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil to return to the framework of international arbitration over a compensation claim for a recently nationalized oil joint venture.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on the Venezuelan people to defend the nation's oil sovereignty on his Sunday talk show Aló Presidente yesterday. Broadcasting from the former oil fields of ExxonMobil in the Orinoco River Basin, Chavez dedicated the show to the recent clash with the transnational oil company and the new projects of the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA.

Venezuela's state oil firm PDVSA issued a statement today, in which it said that it was freezing all its business dealings with ExxonMobil, in retaliation for the company's hostile actions in the dispute over compensation for a recently nationalized oil joint venture.

Venezuela's Energy Minister, Rafael Ramirez, characterised a series of court orders obtained by Exxon Mobil Corp. in Britain, the Netherlands, and the Dutch Antilles, freezing up to $12 billion in assets of Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA, as "judicial terrorism," in a statement today.