Venezuela's top oil official accused Exxon Mobil Corp. of "judicial terrorism" on Friday, but said court orders won by the oil major do not amount to confiscation of US$12 billion. Exxon Mobil 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 President Hugo Chavez's government. A British court last month issued an injunction "freezing" as much as US$12 billion (€8.3 billion) in assets.
But Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said: "They don't have any asset frozen. They only have frozen US$300 million" in cash through a U.S. court in New York. As for the case in Britain, PDVSA does not have "any assets in that jurisdiction that even come close to those sums" of US$12 billion , Ramirez said.
Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross said the company had no comment on Ramirez's statements.