Caracas, Feb 25 (Prensa Latina) The actions taken by the US transnational company Exxon Mobil against the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to freeze its assets abroad lack legal foundations, experts said on Monday.
In statements to the newspaper PANORAMA, expert Victor Santamarin pointed out that as an arbitration process is underway, such a measure is ruled out before the trial begins.
Santamarin said that Exxon Mobil's lawsuit for five billion dollars is lower than the 12 billion dollars demanded in as preventive actions by British and Dutch courts.
In that regard, the experts recalled that the ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes), which is in charge of settling the dispute, has not ruled that assets must be frozen as a previous step to arbitration.
So far, the country has spent more than 1.8 billion dollars to control operations in the Orinoco Oil Strip, which was mainly run by transnational companies.
According to Deputy Mario Isea, the lawsuit exceeds Exxon Mobil's reported assets in the former Cerro Negro project (currently Petromonagas), which totaled 700 million dollars.
In that regard, the lawmaker pointed out that transnational company owned 41.77 percent of the assets, so it cannot demand such a huge compensation.
For Venezuela, Isea added, additional lawsuits by the US company are pressure mechanisms outside the scope of the law.
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