Houston, August 21 - Neftegaz.RU. US oil firm ConocoPhillips has reached an agreement with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company to recover nearly $2 billion it was awarded as part of a decade-old expropriation dispute.
The statement from ConocoPhillips said that PDVSA has agreed to recognise the judgment by an international arbitration panel and will make the 1st $500 million payment within 90 days and the rest over a period of some 4 years.
In exchange, Conoco will suspend legal actions to seize PDVSA’s facilities in the Dutch Antilles. In May, ConocoPhillips CEO Executive Ryan Lance said the Houston oil producer was pressing forward with recouping the $2 billion it is owned by Venezuela.
ConocoPhillips seized much of the oil storage and refining assets of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, in the Caribbean islands of Curacao, Bonaire and Sint Eustatius in recent days, but that is just the start of the legal repayment process, Lance said today after the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Houston.
