Venezuela has moved oil revenue into Swiss banks to avoid a possible seizure of funds by Exxon Mobil in a legal battle that pits leftist anti-US President Hugo Chávez against the US’s biggest company. The Texas energy giant won court rulings that froze assets belonging to Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in a hardball manoeuvre meant to ensure the OPEC nation pays compensation for taking over a multibillion-dollar oil project last year.
Chávez vowed to fight back, threatening to stop oil sales to the United States — Venezuela’s biggest oil customer — if it kept up its “economic war” through proxies such as Exxon. Yesterday, the administration of President George W. Bush, which clashes with Chávez over everything from oil prices to democracy, dismissed the warning as “something that we’ve heard before” from its No. 4 supplier.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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