MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela wins asset freeze case against Exxon

Exxon Mobil Corp.'s freeze on $12 billion of assets belonging to Venezuela's state oil company was overturned by a U.K. court in a set-back for the U.S. energy company in its dispute with President Hugo Chavez.

A London court today said that an injunction freezing assets belonging to Petroleos de Venezuela SA, known as PDVSA, should be thrown out. Judge Paul Walker disclosed the ruling without giving his reasoning. Exxon, the world's largest oil company, sought the freeze to keep Venezuela from shifting assets out of the reach of an international arbitration commission that's handling claims against Chavez's government for last year's takeover of an oil field. PDVSA had argued that U.K. courts didn't have jurisdiction to intervene in the dispute. Courts in the U.K., Netherlands and Netherlands Antilles issued orders freezing PDVSA assets, Exxon said last month. The decisions kept PDVSA from moving assets, while allowing it to do business, according to court papers. A message left with Irving, Texas-based Exxon's press office before office hours, wasn't immediately answered. Exxon can appeal today's ruling. At a U.K. court hearing lawyers for the Venezuelan oil company also argued that the $12 billion was more than Exxon had sought in private settlement negotiations to resolve the case. Exxon won a U.S. court order Feb. 13 that extended a freeze on as much as $315 million that would have been transferred to PDVSA in a bond buyback transaction.