Azerbaijan, Baku, 5 March / corr Trend A.Badalova / JP Morgan, the third biggest bank in the United States, does not expect the conflict between the biggest US company ExxonMobil and the state oil company of Venezuela Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to have a short-term effect on supplies.
In January 2007 the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, signed a decree on nationalization of oil fields in the Orinoco River basin. In accordance with the document, by 1 May 2008 foreign companies are eligible to sell to PDVSA no less than 60% of their stock in oil production projects. ExxonMobil did not agree with Chavez' conditions and lost control over part of its projects in Venezuela.
In response ExxonMobil achieved suspension of foreign assets of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in the amount of approximately $12bln.
"The dispute with Exxon - and now heightened tensions with Colombia - should make Venezuela a psychologically supportive factor for the market in the coming months," Kristi Jones, an analyst at JP Morgan Chase Bank, told Trend .
Venezuela occupies 4th place in the volume of oil export to the United States. Every day Venezuela supplies approximately 1.5mln tons of oil to the United States refined at the enterprises of PDVSA, partially owned by ExxonMobil.
Venezuelan crude is amongst the heaviest and acidic in the world and requires intensive refining, making barrels difficult to place outside of refineries with a suitable conversion capacity. Most of the refineries capable of processing Venezuelan crude are located in the United States; five are owned by PDVSA's subsidiary Citgo
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