Exxon wins court order freezing sale of billions in oil assets by Venezuela

Exxon Mobil has won court orders freezing as much as $12 billion in petroleum assets controlled by Venezuela's government in an escalation of a dispute over efforts by President Hugo Chávez to assert greater control over the country's oil industry.
 
Venezuela's dollar-denominated bonds suffered their steepest drop in six months on Thursday on concerns that Chávez's government could face a protracted legal battle with Exxon, preventing the government from raising cash through the sale of refineries abroad if the economy here slows after years of torrid growth...

In recent days, Exxon won a court order from the High Court of
London prohibiting Petróleos de Venezuela from selling assets worldwide
up to a value of $12 billion, Margaret Ross, an Exxon spokeswoman in
Houston, said in a statement. Exxon won similar orders in the
Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles for assets worth up to $12
billion.

And in New York, Exxon won an order freezing $300
million of Petróleos de Venezuela's assets. Despite a deterioration of
political relations between Caracas and Washington, Venezuela remains a
major trading partner with the United States, ranking as its
fourth-largest supplier of imported crude oil.

"Exxon Mobil has worked with the Venezuelan government to reach an agreement regarding compensation based on the fair market value of the assets," company spokesman Len D'Eramo said.

 
"We are disappointed these discussions have not been successful."

Social development in PDVSA is a process of formulating and executing projects in alignment with the Community Development plans of the State. In order to put oil resources to the service of the wider population and create a new economic model, putting an end to the social inequalities so apparent in Venezuela in the last decades, PDVSA promotes Fondespa (The Fund for Social and Economic Development within the Country), which has the task of promoting social development through a transparent and fair distribution of oil revenues.

 
Backing the social missions promoted by the National Executive is one of the ways in which PDVSA gets directly involved in the lives of ordinary Venezuelans. The company, as part of its revolutionary, corporate responsibility program, encourages groups to take part in their own development projects by first considering the specific conditions (cultural, productive, etc) of each region in the country. By doing so, the corporation acknowledges and respects the constitutive plurality of Venezuelan society. That is how the Endogenous Development Nuclei (Núcleos de Desarrollo Endógeno or NDE) are established, allowing each community to become aware of its potential and is also capable of strengthening and transforming itself so as to generate benefits for the community and eventually become self-supporting.

 
PDVSA is 100% committed to the eradication of both rural and urban poverty. The company promotes an extensive network of endogenous development projects throughout the country. It also actively discourages every kind of discrimination and is dedicated to supporting minority groups within Venezuela, through a wide range of different programs.

 
The social programs organized by PDVSA:

 
    * Offer the means, possibilities, and real resources to enable citizens to improve conditions in personal, social, cultural and professional aspects of their own lives. This is carried out in a way that educates individuals to develop a communitarian consciousness, whilst upgrading their skills and allowing them a greater participation in the economic, political, and social life of the country.

    * Establish the strategies and programs that conform to the regulations of the National Executive and PDVSA,  and enable information, resources, assets and document exchanges between PDVSA and other sources of social development that contribute to satisfying community requirements and expectations.

    * Align and communicate, together with PDVSA’s main organizations social and economic programs; guaranteeing an improved coexistence and greater understanding between PDVSA and the communities it serves.