By Michael Erman
The largest U.S. company sought the asset freeze to guarantee repayment should it win arbitration over the Cerro Negro heavy oil project.
"To me it sounds like a very aggressive tactic," said Stephen Zamora, professor of international law at the University of Houston Law Center.
Exxon -- which last week posted the largest ever year's profit by a U.S. company -- said on Thursday it has received court orders in Britain, the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles each freezing up to $12 billion in assets of Venezuela state oil firm PDVSA. An Exxon spokeswoman said the total that could be frozen worldwide was $12 billion.
PDVSA, one of the largest suppliers of crude oil to the United States, was not immediately available for comment. The White House and the U.S. State Department also declined to comment.
Left-winger Chavez, who regularly clashes with the Bush
administration, took over Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips
CHALLENGE TO CHAVEZ
PDVSA is already facing growing debt and increasing operational problems that analysts attribute to underinvestment caused by the company's massive contributions to Chavez's social programs.
The South American nation has an extensive overseas refining network, including the Citgo refining and marketing branch in the United States.
PDVSA's European refining assets, principally a 50 percent share in the German refining joint venture Ruhr Oel, were held through a Netherlands Company PDV Europa BV, according to filings PDVSA made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2006.
Exxon has not specified how much it wants for the 41.7 percent stake in the Cerro Negro project, but it has said its remaining book investment in the project was about $750 million at the time the assets were expropriated.
Amy Meyers Jaffe, energy policy researcher at Rice's Baker Institute, said the case could have far-reaching implications.
ConocoPhillips spokesman William Tanner said his company "continues to discuss an amicable resolution regarding the assets that were expropriated in Venezuela."
Venezuela's benchmark global bond due 2027 lost 2.375 points in price to be bid 98.938, while total returns offered by the country's debt slipped 1.52 percent according to the JP Morgan EMBI+ index.
