Venezuela Pays $834 Million In Oil To France After Nationalizing Much Of France's Stake In Orinoco Strip

The Venezuelan government, through its national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, will pay French oil company Total with $834 million in crude oil after it declaring a seizure of operations in Sincor, a joint venture operational agreement to process heavy crude oil in the Orinoco strip. PDVSA now holds majority ownership of Sincor, a move related to the nationalization of Venezuela's assets initiated by President Hugo Chavez. Aside from PDVSA and Total, other joint venture partners in Sincor include Norwegian Statoil, and United States Chevron and British BP."