CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 12, 2008
Venezuela Halts Oil Sales To Exxon Mobil
Move Prompted By U.S. Oil Company's Bid To Seize Billions Of Dollars In Venezuelan Assets
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(CBS/AP)
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Fast Facts
Venezuela
Learn about the people, economy and history.
Exxon Mobil is locked in a dispute over the nationalization of its oil ventures in Venezuela that has led President Hugo Chavez to threaten to cut off all Venezuelan oil supplies to the United States. Venezuela is the United States' fourth largest oil supplier.
Tuesday's announcement by state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, was limited to Exxon Mobil, which PDVSA accused of "judicial-economic harassment" for its efforts in U.S. and European courts.
PDVSA said it "has paralyzed sales of crude to Exxon Mobil" and suspended commercial relations with the Irving, Texas-based company.
"The legal actions carried out by the U.S. transnational are unnecessary ... and hostile," PDVSA said in the statement. It said it will honor any existing contracts it has with Exxon Mobil for joint investments abroad, but reserved the right to terminate them if permitted by the terms of the contracts.
It was unclear how much oil PDVSA supplies to Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest publicly traded oil company. Both Chavez and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez previously said the company is no longer welcome to do business in Venezuela.
Venezuela's decision leaves up in the air the situation of a refinery in Chalmette, La. - a joint venture supplied by Venezuelan oil in which PDVSA and Exxon Mobil are equal partners.
Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross declined to comment on the move by Venezuela but added that "it is our long-standing practice to take appropriate steps to meet our customers' needs."
Exxon Mobil is challenging the Chavez government's nationalization of one of four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin, one of the world's richest oil deposits.
A British court issued an injunction last month temporarily freezing up to $12 billion of PDVSA's assets. Exxon Mobil also has secured an "order of attachment" from U.S. District Court in Manhattan on about $300 million in cash held by PDVSA. A hearing to confirm the order is scheduled for Wednesday.
Other oil companies including Chevron Corp., France's Total, Britain's BP PLC and Norway's StatoilHydro ASA have negotiated deals with Venezuela to continue as minority partners in the nationalized projects. ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil balked at the government's tougher terms and have been in compensation talks with PDVSA.
Fast Fact
Earlier Tuesday at an energy conference in Houston, Exxon Mobil senior vice president Mark Albers declined comment on any court proceedings with Venezuela, though he said the company is eager to negotiate fair compensation for its assets.The U.S. remains the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan oil, and Chavez relies largely on U.S. oil money to stimulate his economy and bankroll social programs.
Exxon Mobil is taking the dispute to international arbitration, to which Venezuela has agreed. Its legal actions essentially seek to corral Venezuelan assets ahead of any decision by the arbitration panel.
Venezuela's announcement came after Ramirez, the oil minister and PDVSA president, reiterated in a newspaper interview Tuesday that Venezuela is ready to cut off oil supplies to the United States if pressed into an "economic war."
"If they want this conflict to escalate, it's going to escalate. We have a way to make this conflict escalate," Ramirez was quoted as saying.
The White House on Tuesday declined to comment on Venezuela's threat. "When there's a litigation that's ongoing, different parties will say anything to try to win over on an argument," said White House press secretary Dana Perino.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan state television has begun airing short anti-Exxon segments, with a message appearing on the screen in red text reading: "Exxon Mobil turns oil into blood."
The U.S. remains the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan oil, and Chavez relies largely on U.S. oil money to stimulate his economy and bankroll social programs that have traditionally boosted his popularity.
Some analysts say it would make little sense for Chavez to follow through on his broader threats to cut off oil sales to the U.S. because Venezuela owns refineries in the United States that are customized to handle the South American country's heavy crude.
Ramirez said Venezuela is selling the U.S. a daily average of 1.5 million barrels of crude and other products derived from oil.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Who knows, maybe Chavez is building a refinery for China or India so he has another market.
With Venezuelan oil, President Chavez can provide his people with amazingly cheap fuel...Exxon takes the same oil, refines it and charges us over ten times the price...
Now would be a good time to nationalize Exxon.
Years ago GM--the criminally mismanaged complement to the oil cartel--produced an electric car which its customers loved...instead of following through with this, it stopped production, retrieved the vehicles from protesting lease-holders and destroyed almost everyone of these wonderful vehicles...now they are marketing crappy hybrids and getting rid of 75,000 workers...just think of the ripple effect that this is going to have on employment.
GM, Exxon and Mr. Danger can all kiss my arse!
Why would he want to live in a country that has no access to oil?
God Bless Chavez. Stick it to the American Empire. In South America we have been stealing your natural resources, assassinating your presidents, fostering coups, supporting dictators... doing whatever it takes to enrich our corporations for decades and decades.
Finally democracy works in Venezuala. No wonder Chavez is despised by the American Rulers and demonized in the corporate media.
Go Chavez. Hero of the People.
I think the King of Spain said it best...
Oil is a necessity. But there are plenty of viable venues, even if Mr Chavez actually does what he claims.
The Great Emperor is considering moving the country of Venezeula up to No. 2 on his "TO INVADE" list, right behind Iran. He already hs both VP Darth Vader Cheney and Paul (Wolfy) Wolfovitz working on a list of "reasons" to invade Venezeula, and it has been learned the first "reason" is that the CIA has learned that Osama Bin Laden has built an Al Qeada "terrrrrrrorist" base in the back yard of Hugo Chavez'' presidential palace complete with WMD''s formerly belonging to Saddam Hussein!
Meanwhile the citizens of the USSA will be riding bicycles to work as they USED TO do in China 30 years ago before NAFTA and the nightmare of the Bush years was ever thought of!
SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!
We may be #1 importers of his oil, but not for long, CHINA''s economy and demand for oil have skyrokcketed, the US purchasing power will dwindle as they start selling more higher priced oil to China.
Of course BUSH was behind attacking Chavez in the media and creating a lot of this hostility.
"I would actually like to see gas hit $8 a gallon. That would end fossil fuels once and for all."
Oh? think so? and what do you think will happen to the cost of EVERYTHING you buy or use in the years it takes to make changes? remember- EVERYTHING runs on energy- OIL in one form or another, including your electric, food transportation and those nice solar panels that have to be manufactured using fossil fuels- their cost due to that and sudden demand will skyrocket!
"because at $8 a gallon it becomes ecomicly viable to go out buy an electric car and put solar panels on my house."
Buy one? IF you can, and IF you can find places to plug in to recharge on the road, and it takes hours to recharge all those batteries and they dont last long.
Priced a roof of panels lately? its around $20,000 for a small system- would take 20 years to even break even but with a huge demand and shortages or panels- expect that cost to go to $60,000
" $8 gas let them keep thier oil. We''ll use something else.
Posted by cbscrash07"
Such as ? ethanol? LOL read the impact of that.
Posted by eyedrive1"
There is NO such thing as ''zero emissions'' vehicles, all you are doing is transferring the pollution and fossil fuel burning from your tailpipe to the POWER PLANT smoke stack, electric cars are NOT a free ride!
Most power plants are barely able to keep up with the damand as it is NOW, thats why you have brownouts, blackouts and problems during the summer with all those air conditioners overloading the grid on hot days, add in a few million battery chargers charging cars and you will really see the problem.
Electric cars are NO GOOD in the snow belt, you cant run wipers, defroster, heater and lights and expect to drive any distance on battery power.
Charging batteries is VERY inefficient, a large loss in the charging conversion is lost as heat, lead-acid batteries also do not last and need to be replaced as well as disposed of/recycled. As those whose starting battery dies suddenly with no warning one day around age 3 years can attest, when the things go bad they just GO, and that could be at a bad time.
Profits are UP UP UP!!!!!!
Those Tesla electric cars you mention, PRICETAG was left out;
A fully-loaded Roadster will cost $100,000, with a $75,000 down payment required to reserve one.
Electric cars will probably always be more expensive than cars that use combustion engines. The savings comes when you look at its the fuel costs and environmental impact. "
Yeah well, how many people with a $20,000 car are going to be spending $80,000 on FUEL, say 20,000 gals at $4 per gal over the normal life of about 5-7 years or so most people keep new cars?
20,000 gals of gas will get you moved around 700,000 miles @35 mpg
Nice idea but your WORKING STIFFS, families and poor are not going to be able to afford a high tech $100,000 car, only the rich will and even if they all switch over, their numbers are miniscule out of 300 million in the country.
HAVE YOU NOT HEARD ABOUT NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS??
HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN BURN VERY WELL TOGETHER. AND BOTH CAN BE MADE USING THE COMMON THING THAT WE DRINK EVERY DAY. PLAIN OLD WATER.
SO, LET CHAVEZ DRINK HIS OIL.
However, making hydrogen from water continues to be an economic loser - comsumes far more energy making the hydrogen than it gives back. Even reformation with catalysis is too energy costly.
Oil companies are fine with a perceived shortage, I tell ya.
-IMPEACH BUSH
So now Exxon Mobil Corp is in charge of U.S. foreign policy? Wonderful.
Exxon Mobil Corp has already raped Americans with high oil prices that have led to the highest profits in history, now they are going to close the tap of Venezuela oil.
I''m sure they find some way to profit from that too... at the expense of U.S. drivers and the U.S. economy.
Someone needs to crush Chevez AND Exxon Mobil Corp.
alternate technology just for the ENTERTAINMENT value
of watching a dictator try to figure out how to pay
for his gulfstream.
They have been in charge for years. Remember the "secret meeting" during the Bush''s 1st term?
-Exxon Mobil Corp has already raped Americans with high oil prices that have led to the highest profits in history, now they are going to close the tap of Venezuela oil.
They all work together. They are just driving up the price once again
-I''''m sure they find some way to profit from that too... at the expense of U.S. drivers and the U.S. economy.
They haven''t drained all of our saving yet. Give them time, they soon will have it all
batteries in stacks kept in the trunk. VERY HIGH TECH, No Memory, quick charge, low maintenance, and with a very long life, after which they will arrange for replacement and recycling of yours for which you get paid. Power gets you 0''60 in 4 secs. Only gradual loss of battery power when they age. Any they do have plans for a sedan in the $50''s and an entry level in the $30''s in the works so pretty soon most anyone can get in one soon. All they need is some more capitalization to meet demand. And as to power source, nuc works for me, not to mention water, air, clean coal, and the price of solar will drop dramatically with volume. So will efficiency with time and engineering. Between all of them on the grid we should be able to make it work, oil ain''t everything.
Sometimes bitter medicine is needed to force Americans to change our wasteful energy habits, and sometimes big money must lose, just to let the good guys win every once in a while.
Put the crack pipe DOWN! Higher pump prices don''t stop waste, it hurts people trying to get to work everyday! Good guys will never win at that game. Any cost to the oil company comes right out of the good guys%u2019 pocket. They will always get theirs first, even if that means $5 or $6 a gallon! If Hugo wants to die so bad, have him start a nuke program or WMDs! Then he''ll get bombed and every one will say it was for the oil.
Mexico the third oil supplier to the United States,Iran second,Saudi Arabia first...hhmmm folks we''re screwed!! but who cares lets closed the mexican border build the fence!! right??my fellow Americans we are doomed,we are simply waiting for the judgments to come, it would be stupid to think a NATON that despises God will have peace and prosperity....
One we threaten to invade
Another we threaten to big a wall between us
The other we finance thier elected leaders overthrow (and fail)
get ready for 5$ gas folks.
yeah, those "conservative" are real bright lights!
but what the helll,
as all good bushit supporters will tell you:
that''s the price for spreading freedom and democracy!
Those of us on the middle or lower rungs are always the first to get hit, this is life, but a bit of pain that reaches to the higher rungs will spark new approaches to energy, big oil cannot profit if no one can afford their prices, right? Same for all those who factor the increase into their products, if they are priced above the market''s ability to pay, they will be forced to take remedial measures also. If a company fires everyone who won''t be able to drive to work, they won''t have much of a labor force left.
What we are seeing is the limit to how far uncontrolled Reaganesque "trickle down" BS can be maintained, and believe me, we had to reach this point before anyone would even admit there is a problem.
Now we have little choice but to entertain developing alternative energy sources, and alternative economic practices, and if that happens, then the hardship borne now will be worth it for our childrens'' future.
Crack tends to make people think in extremely short term ways, it seems you are the one "on the glass".
Now that their suppy has been cut, we should stop buying at the Exxon stations and go elsewhere for our gas and just maybe that will get their attention.
Come on America stepup and help take our country back from the corporations.
"6$ a gallon? You guys should try living in Europe, I''''d LOVE to pay that little" - Well move to Venezuala. You''ll only have to pay $.15 a gallon.
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