The Briefing Room

General Category => Economy/Business => Topic started by: thackney on March 18, 2019, 01:30:35 pm

Title: Venezuela Ordered to Pay ConocoPhillips $8.7B
Post by: thackney on March 18, 2019, 01:30:35 pm
Venezuela Ordered to Pay ConocoPhillips $8.7B
https://www.rigzone.com/news/venezuela_ordered_to_pay_conocophillips_87b-13-mar-2019-158366-article/ (https://www.rigzone.com/news/venezuela_ordered_to_pay_conocophillips_87b-13-mar-2019-158366-article/)
March 13, 2019

ConocoPhillips has revealed that an international arbitration tribunal has unanimously ordered the government of Venezuela to pay the company $8.7 billion.

The compensation is for the government’s “unlawful expropriation of ConocoPhillips’ investments in Venezuela in 2007, plus interest,” ConocoPhillips said in a statement posted on its website.

In the statement, the company said the tribunal ruled in 2013 that the expropriation of ConocoPhillips’ “substantial” investments in the Hamaca and Petrozuata heavy crude oil projects and the offshore Corocoro development project “violated international law”.

The timing and manner of compensation collection “remain to be determined,” ConocoPhillips said in the statement.

“We welcome the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes tribunal’s decision, which upholds the principle that governments cannot unlawfully expropriate private investments without paying compensation,” Kelly B. Rose, senior vice president, legal, general counsel and corporate Secretary of ConocoPhillips, said in a statement posted on the company’s website.

In April 2018, in a separate and independent legal action, an international arbitration tribunal, constituted under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), awarded ConocoPhillips approximately $2 billion from Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) and two of its subsidiaries....
Title: Re: Venezuela Ordered to Pay ConocoPhillips $8.7B
Post by: thackney on March 18, 2019, 01:35:45 pm
Likely future source of getting paid:

U.S. sanctions Venezuela state oil firm, escalating pressure on Maduro
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-usa-sanctions/u-s-sanctions-venezuelan-state-oil-firm-escalating-pressure-on-maduro-idUSKCN1PM2DP (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-usa-sanctions/u-s-sanctions-venezuelan-state-oil-firm-escalating-pressure-on-maduro-idUSKCN1PM2DP)
JANUARY 28, 2019

...The sanctions, contained in an executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump, freeze U.S.-based assets of PDVSA, Venezuela’s largest source of revenue....

...U.S. officials said the sanctions on PDVSA were intended to prevent Maduro’s government from siphoning off funds from the oil company to maintain his grip on power....
Title: Re: Venezuela Ordered to Pay ConocoPhillips $8.7B
Post by: truth_seeker on March 18, 2019, 02:19:43 pm
Socialism in the real world.

Title: Re: Venezuela Ordered to Pay ConocoPhillips $8.7B
Post by: catfish1957 on March 18, 2019, 02:44:01 pm


ConocoPhillips has revealed that an international arbitration tribunal has unanimously ordered the government of Venezuela to pay the company $8.7 billion.



ExxonMobil was only abile to recoup about 10% of a $16B  lawsuit that went on 2007-2014.  COP....   Good luck extracting blood from a turnip.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/exxon-mobil-awarded-1-4-billion-in-venezuela-case-1412879396 (https://www.wsj.com/articles/exxon-mobil-awarded-1-4-billion-in-venezuela-case-1412879396)
Title: Re: Venezuela Ordered to Pay ConocoPhillips $8.7B
Post by: IsailedawayfromFR on March 19, 2019, 12:41:28 pm
ExxonMobil was only abile to recoup about 10% of a $16B  lawsuit that went on 2007-2014.  COP....   Good luck extracting blood from a turnip.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/exxon-mobil-awarded-1-4-billion-in-venezuela-case-1412879396 (https://www.wsj.com/articles/exxon-mobil-awarded-1-4-billion-in-venezuela-case-1412879396)
It will never go away unless one is paid.

Company I worked for had E&P assets confiscated by Gaddhafi in early 70s.  When Libya opened back up in early 2000s, it had to allow that same company the rights it has previously.

It will happen again in Venezuela as the country has been proven to be incapable of commercializing its resources.

And it has a lot of resources.
Title: Re: Venezuela Ordered to Pay ConocoPhillips $8.7B
Post by: catfish1957 on March 19, 2019, 01:51:22 pm
It will never go away unless one is paid.

Company I worked for had E&P assets confiscated by Gaddhafi in early 70s.  When Libya opened back up in early 2000s, it had to allow that same company the rights it has previously.

It will happen again in Venezuela as the country has been proven to be incapable of commercializing its resources.

And it has a lot of resources.

XOM only got 10%, and I for one predict that Venz will nationalize (sucker) assets for a 3rd time once things stabalize, Or will it be a 4th time?

Not sure about Libya, but the socialist in Venz, apparently play by different rules, as XOM has no expectation of recouping the other 90%.
Title: Re: Venezuela Ordered to Pay ConocoPhillips $8.7B
Post by: thackney on March 19, 2019, 02:03:05 pm
XOM only got 10%, and I for one predict that Venz will nationalize (sucker) assets for a 3rd time once things stabalize, Or will it be a 4th time?

Not sure about Libya, but the socialist in Venz, apparently play by different rules, as XOM has no expectation of recouping the other 90%.

@catfish1957 @IsailedawayfromFR

The judgement to XOM was later reduced.

Exxon Blocked from Enforcing Venezuela Arbitration Award
https://www.courthousenews.com/exxon-blocked-enforcing-venezuela-arbitration-award/ (https://www.courthousenews.com/exxon-blocked-enforcing-venezuela-arbitration-award/)
July 12, 2017

An ExxonMobil subsidiary cannot enforce a $188 million arbitration award against Venezuela for nationalizing its oil industry without complying with the notice requirements of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the Second Circuit ruled.

In 2014, the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ordered Venezuela to pay Mobil Cerro Negro, an ExxonMobil subsidiary, $1.6 billion in compensation for the 2007 takeover of Venezuela’s oil industry by its late leader Hugo Chavez.

The billion-dollar award was reduced in March to $188 million by an ICSID annulment committee.

Mobil Cerro Negro sued to collect the award in U.S. federal court a day after it was entered, but Venezuela raised a jurisdictional argument, arguing that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act supersedes the statute that created the ICSID a decade earlier....
Title: Re: Venezuela Ordered to Pay ConocoPhillips $8.7B
Post by: catfish1957 on March 19, 2019, 02:15:19 pm
@catfish1957 @IsailedawayfromFR

The judgement to XOM was later reduced.


And the moral of this story boys and girls is that doing business with socialist regimes is rife with risk.  Proceed at your own caution.
Title: Re: Venezuela Ordered to Pay ConocoPhillips $8.7B
Post by: IsailedawayfromFR on March 21, 2019, 01:49:57 am
And the moral of this story boys and girls is that doing business with socialist regimes is rife with risk.  Proceed at your own caution.
Most confiscations have taken place in other than socialist countries.  Venezuela was not a socialist country the first time it nationalized the industry in the 70s.

The entire Middle East is an example.

Has more to do being third world than the polictiial bent of the country.

In a former role in assessment of countries for a company I worked for, we incorporated a 'country risk' and discounted investments accordingly.

@catfish1957