Flag day: a PDVSA worker flies the flag
PDVSA switches bank account
Venezuelan state-run oil giant PDVSA has moved its export payment accounts to UBS bank in Switzerland, traders said today, after ExxonMobil secured a court-ordered asset freeze of up to $12 billion of PDVSA's global assets.
ExxonMobil won rulings from courts in the UK and the Netherlands that froze assets belonging to PDVSA in order to ensure compensation for President Hugo Chavez's nationalisation of developments in the Orinoco Belt last year.
A central bank director in Curacao told Reuters that ExxonMobil lawyers had told banks that one of the court rulings meant they had to at least maintain the current level of funds PDVSA holds in any account in the Netherlands Antilles.
"It all has to go to UBS in Switzerland now," said one trader who asked not to be identified.
A PDVSA spokesman said he did not have immediate comment on the issue.