Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened on Sunday to cut off oil sales to the US in an "economic war" if ExxonMobil Corp wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
"If you end up freezing [the assets] and it harms us, we're going to harm you," Chavez said, turning his words to US President George W. Bush. "Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr Bush, Mr Danger."
ExxonMobil has gone after the assets of Venezuela's state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, in US, British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion dollar oil project by Chavez's government last year. A British court has issued an injunction "freezing" as much as US$12 billion in assets.
"I speak to the US empire, because that's the master: Continue and you will see that we won't send one drop of oil to the empire of the United States," Chavez said during his weekly radio and TV program Alo Presidente.
"The outlaws of ExxonMobil will never again rob us," Chavez said, accusing the Irving, Texas-based oil giant of acting in concert with Washington and being part of corporate "worldwide mafias."
Chavez has often threatened to cut off oil shipments to the US, which is Venezuela's No. 1 client, if Washington tries to oust him.
Chavez's warnings on Sunday appeared to extend that threat to attempts by oil companies to challenge his government's nationalization drive through lawsuits.
"If the economic war continues against Venezuela, the price of oil is going to reach US$200 [a barrel] and Venezuela will join the economic war," Chavez said.
"And more than one country is willing to accompany us in the economic war," he said.
ExxonMobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross said the company had no comment. A US embassy spokeswoman in Caracas did not return a call.
The US imported 1.23 million barrels of crude oil a day from Venezuela in November, making it the fourth-biggest source of oil imports behind Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico, the latest US Energy Department figures showed.
Those four countries, along with Nigeria, accounted for 74 percent of US crude oil imports in November, the government said. By itself, Venezuela accounted for about 12 percent of US crude imports, the figures showed.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has said that court orders won by ExxonMobil have "no effect" on the state oil company PDVSA and are merely "transitory measures" while Venezuela presents its case in courts in New York and London.
ExxonMobil is also taking its claims to international arbitration, disputing the terms it was granted under Chavez's nationalization last year of four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin, one of the world's richest oil deposits.
Late last night, PDVSA said it had moved its export payment accounts to UBS bank in Switzerland after ExxonMobil secured the embargo.
A central bank director in Curacao said Exxon lawyers had told banks that one of the court rulings meant they had to at least maintain the current level of funds PDVSA holds in any account in the Netherlands Antilles island.
"It all has to go to UBS in Switzerland now," said one trader who asked not to be identified.
An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has acquired imagery data covering all of Mars, including visuals of its south pole, after circling the planet more than 1,300 times since early last year, state media reported yesterday. The Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in February last year on the country’s inaugural mission there. A robotic rover has since been deployed on the surface as an orbiter surveyed the planet from space. Among the images taken from space were China’s first photographs of the Martian south pole, where almost all of the planet’s water resources are locked. In 2018, an orbiting probe operated by the European
TRADE TALK: Xiao Qian said that Australia had fired the ‘first shot’ in deteriorating trade relations with China, but improvements were possible if Canberra takes action China’s new ambassador to Australia chided protesters who heckled him yesterday during a speech about the future of relations between the two countries. Xiao Qian (肖千), who has only been in the role since January, had just begun his speech at the University of Technology Sydney when the first protesters interjected, calling for freedom for Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. The ambassador was repeatedly interrupted by sign-wielding protesters, some criticizing China’s treatment of the Uighur people as well as the university for inviting Xiao to speak. “People who are coming again and again to interrupt the process, that’s not expression of freedom of
QUARANTINE SHORTENED: A new protocol detailing risk levels and local policy responses would be ‘more scientific and accurate,’ a health agency spokesman said China’s revised COVID-19 guidelines, which cut a quarantine requirement in half for inbound travelers, also create a standardized policy for mass testing and lockdowns when cases of the disease flare, showing that the country still has a zero-tolerance approach to the virus. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) solidified the position during a trip to Wuhan, where the pathogen first emerged in 2019, saying that China is capable of achieving a “final victory” over the virus. The “zero COVID-19” policy is the most effective and economic approach for the country, Xi said during the trip on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported. The first
A former South Korean Navy SEAL turned YouTuber who risked jail time to leave Seoul and fight for Ukraine said it would have been a “crime” not to use his skills to help. Ken Rhee, a former special warfare officer, signed up at the Ukrainian embassy in Seoul the moment Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked for global volunteers and was fighting on the front lines near Kyiv by early March. To get there, he had to break South Korean law — Seoul banned its citizens from traveling to Ukraine, and Rhee, who was injured in a fall while leading a special operations
RSS