By DPA
Caracas : Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDSVA) suspended its supply to Exxon Mobil, due to the legal actions undertaken by the US firm, PDVSA has said.
In a statement, PDVSA Tuesday said the move is an act of “reciprocity” after the largest private oil company in the world filed for compensation following the nationalization of its heavy oil refinery facilities in Venezuela.
“In the face of the legal-economic harassment actions undertaken by Exxon Mobil against Petroleos de Venezuela and as an act of reciprocity, PDVSA decided to suspend commercial relations and the supply of crude oil and oil by-products to this US transnational,” the statement said.
PDVSA defined the legal moves made by Exxon Mobil “unnecessary intimidating and hostile.”
Exxon Mobil declined to comment on PDVSA’s decision.
“We do not comment on media reports. However it is our long-standing practice to take appropriate steps to meet our customers’ needs,” the company said in a statement.
Last week, the Houston-based company said that the London High Court had proceeded to freeze $12 billion in funds from PDVSA around the world. Dutch courts granted Exxon Mobil a similar measure, although in that case only assets found on Dutch territory were affected.
However, Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez denied then that the asset-freeze rulings were definitive and stressed that the Venezuelan government will not turn back on its decision to nationalize oil fields and refineries.
It is “completely false” that any assets have been frozen, Ramirez said, calling a complaint filed by the US company a “bluff, an act of propaganda.”
In May, the government of left-wing populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez forced multinational companies to transfer to PDVSA a large part of their oil business in the South American country. The foreign companies now have minority stakes in joint ventures with PDVSA.
TotalFinaElf of France, Statoil of Norway, BP of Britain and Chevron of the United States accepted the new conditions.
ExxonMobil and the third-largest US oil firm ConocoPhillips sought international arbitrage and withdrew from Venezuela – the sixth-largest exporter of oil in the world – as a result of the move.
ExxonMobil is demanding compensation for the expropriation of its oil fields. A US court already froze $300 million that PDVSA has at The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation in connection with this case.
Chavez has offered to pay companies in accordance with the book value of their assets expropriated in Venezuela, unaffected by the record prices of oil on the international market.
US and European oil companies are currently registering record earnings, profiting from the high price of oil. In the last quarter of 2007, ExxonMobil reported the largest profit by any company in US history.