Chevron: If terms are good, arbitration is optional in Venezuela.
Chevron OK with Venezuela arbitration ban
US supermajor Chevron is willing to work in Venezuela under contracts that ban international arbitration in case of conflict, a company executive said.
“Attractive fiscal terms” are most important as the company decides on new projects, Ali Moshiri, president of Chevron Latin America and Africa, said yesterday in an interview at a heavy oil conference at Margarita, Venezuela.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez doesn’t want foreign courts or panels getting involved in disputes between his government and international energy companies.
US supermajors ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips have asked arbitration panels in Europe and the US to order Venezuela to compensate the companies for multi-billion dollar assets seized in 2007.
“There are many risks, but you have to look at the whole picture and see if it meets your requirements,” Moshiri said in a Bloomberg report.
“If you have more opportunity there and it meets your requirement for creating value, you carry on and you do it.”
California-based Chevron, one of the biggest foreign investors in Venezuela and has minority stakes in joint ventures Petropiar and Petroboscan.
Petropiar produces as much as 190,000 barrels of heavy oil per day in the Orinoco Belt, removes sulfur and other contaminants, and exports crude.
Petroboscan produces 115,000 barrels per day of heavy oil.
ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which had stakes in projects similar to Petropiar, filed for arbitration in 2007 amid Chavez’s nationalisation drive.
Chevron, along with France’s Total, Norway’s StatoilHydro and UK supermajor BP, accepted Chavez’s terms and work with state-run PDVSA.
