On 7 February legal rulings in the US, UK, the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles froze US$12bn of assets of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA following a case brought by ExxonMobil, the world's largest company. 

This aggressive move was in response to the Venezuelan government policy which last year led to them taking majority control of the country's oil resources. Increased economic sovereignty over its oil resources has allowed Venezuela to tackle a range of social inequalities.

ExxonMobil, unlike other foreign firms which reached agreements with the Venezuelan government, refused the terms that were offered, withdrew its assets, and is now demanding a higher rate of compensation. In total 30 out of 32 contracts with international oil companies were successfully renegotiated.

Responding to the move, Venezuela’s Minister of Energy and Oil, Rafael Ramirez, affirmed that “the interests of the nation are over any company's.” Ramirez added that the courts’ decisions were temporary injunctions and not definitive decisions; all the court orders were subject to appeal and the Venezuelan government would be challenging the injunctions.

President Hugo Chavez said  that the actions were part of a US government backed "economic war" and destabilisation campaign against Venezuela.

Additionally, oil workers’ representatives have rejected the actions of ExxonMobil. Oil Union leader Luis Carvajal said, "This transnational has exploited our wealth, has exploited our workers and violated our rights - all the workers in the Orinoco oil belt support the nationalisation."

In a further development on 13 February, PDVSA responded by announcing the suspension of trade relations with ExxonMobil.

*For more information on the issue, see the factsheet prepared by the Venezuelan Embassy in the US here

*To read the response of Venezuela's Minister of Energy and Petroleum Rafael Ramírez click here and for the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicolás Maduro Moros' reply to remarks against PDVSA by Sean McCormack, Spokesman of the US Department of State, see here