( dpa ) - Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's largest oil company, claimed a victory Friday in its dispute with Venezuela over the nationalization of its oil fields in the South American country.
The Houston-based company said that courts in Europe and elsewhere froze 12 billion dollars in funds from the Venezuelan state energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
But Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez denied that the asset-freeze rulings were definitive and stressed that the Venezuelan government will not turn back on its decision to nationalize oil fields and refineries.
It is "completely false" that any assets have been frozen, Ramirez said, calling a complaint filed by the US company a "bluff, an act of propaganda."
"We have received no decision from any tribunal that is definitive regarding our assets. We have a cautionary measure at a New York court, and we have the right to respond to it, which we will do," the minister said in a press conference.
In June, the government of left-wing populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez forced multinational companies to transfer to PDVSA a large part of their oil business in the South American country. The foreign companies now have minority stakes in joint ventures with PDVSA.
TotalFinaElf of France, Statoil of Norway, BP of Britain and Chevron of the United States accepted the new conditions.
ExxonMobil and the third-largest US oil firm ConocoPhillips sought international arbitrage and withdrew from Venezuela as a result of the move.
ExxonMobil is demandign compensation for the expropriation of its oil fields. A US court already froze 300 million dollars from PDVSA in connection with this case.
"Exxon is the typical US transnational that has historically tried to attack oil-producing countries, that tries to impose its criteria on the handling of natural resources," Ramirez said.
The minister stressed that PDVSA has assets totalling 107 billion dollars and is in a position to pay compensation if necessary, but noted that a hypothetical compensation "would not be even half the figure" that ExxonMobil demands.
Chavez has offered to pay companies in accordance with the book value of their assets expropriated in Venezuela, unaffected by the record prices of oil on the international market.
US and European oil companies are currently registering record earnings, profiting from the high price of oil. In the last quarter of 2007, ExxonMobil reported the largest profit by any company in US history.