Quick divorce is best for feuding couple

 15 February 2008 00:02 GMT

THE decision by the High Court in London and courts in the Netherlands and Netherlands Antilles to freeze $12 billion of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA's international oil assets has brought into the spotlight the row between ExxonMobil and Venezuela over last year's equity grab.

In its rush to switch cash into bank accounts beyond ExxonMobil's reach, Venezuela seems to have shown it was caught off guard by the US supermajor's court move.

ExxonMobil knew where to hit PDVSA hard, and hit it hard it did.

The "fair market value" of the frozen PDVSA assets are likely to be worth far more than any compensation ExxonMobil could win from eventual arbitration proceedings.

The Venezuelan governement has recently softened in some of its dealings with international oil companies and is talk of a potential compensation deal with partners in the…

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