Orinoco stand off: ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are reportedly refusing to sign on to the Venezuelan government's plans
US pair 'refusing to sign Caracas deal'
US supermajors ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips have rejected a deal to retain stakes in four heavy oil joint ventures which Venezuela is nationalising, increasing the chances the companies will leave the Opec nation, local sources said.
Four other companies - the US's Chevron, Norway's Statoil, Britain's BP and France's Total - plan to sign an accord that will keep them in the massive Orinoco oil reserve projects, a government official told Reuters.
The officials - one from the oil industry and the other from the government - asked not to be named because the state oil company, PDVSA, planned to officially make the deals public.
PDVSA confirmed it would hold a ceremony, which it originally announced for today but later postponed until tomorrow. It did not specify which companies would sign to stay on.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez decreed tomorrow as a deadline for the majors to accept terms for the government to take a majority stake in four heavy crude upgrading projects valued above $30 billion. The project can produce 600,000 barrels per day from reserves in the Orinoco heavy oil belt.
Companies refusing to stay in the projects can leave and take Venezuela to court or accept a government offer of extra time to negotiate compensation for the lost Orinoco assets, several sources familiar with the talks said.
The two officials noted that negotiations with ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips could be revived at the eleventh hour.
But they both said the two companies' position had been clear: they refused to sign a government proposal for a memorandum of understanding that commits them to remaining in the projects even as their stake is reduced.
"Exxon and Conoco are out," one of the officials said.