Exxon Mobil Corp

In a normal economical situation the below news should have a positive influence on the price of crude but as we all are aware that SPECULATION is now the key factor in keeping the prices above $100, one of the guilty parts Exxon Mobil Corp.'s freeze on $12 billion of assets belonging to Venezuela's state oil company was overturned by a U.K. court in a setback for the U.S. energy company in its dispute with President Hugo Chavez.
A London court today said that an injunction freezing assets belonging to Petroleos de Venezuel SA, known as PDVSA, should be thrown out. Judge Paul Walker disclosed the ruling without giving his reasoning.
Exxon, the world's largest oil company, sought freeze orders in several countries to keep Venezuela from shifting assets out of the reach of an international arbitration commission that's handling claims against Chavez's government for last year's takeover of an oil field. PDVSA had argued that U.K. courts didn't have jurisdiction to intervene in the dispute.
Venezuela's ambassador to the U.K Samuel Moncada said the judge hasn't allowed his court or his country to be an instrument of Exxon, however

Venezuela should also STOP using SPECULATION to influence the crude prices...
Courts in the U.K., Netherlands and Netherlands Antilles issued orders freezing PDVSA assets, Exxon said last month. The decisions kept PDVSA from moving assets, while allowing it to do business, according to court papers.
At a U.K. court hearing lawyers for the Venezuelan oil company also argued that the $12 billion was more than Exxon had sought in private settlement negotiations to resolve the case.
Exxon won a U.S. court order Feb. 13 that extended a freeze on as much as $315 million that would have been transferred to PDVSA in a bond buyback transaction.
The U.K. freeze obtained by Exxon involved PDVSA holdings in refineries in Dundee, Scotland, and Ellesmere Port, England, and bank accounts related to those businesses, according to a court filing in the U.S. case.
The order also listed six U.K.-listed companies in which PDVSA has interests: Nynas Ltd., Eastham Refinery Ltd., Nynas Bitumen Ltd., Nynas Naphthenics Ltd., Bitor Energy Plc and Bitor Energy Ltd., according to the U.S. court filings.
The dispute stems from a 1997 agreement between Mobil Corp. and PDVSA to form a joint venture to explore for extra-heavy crude in the Orinoco oil belt. Exxon, which later acquired Mobil, claimed PDVSA agreed to indemnify Mobil if it later expropriated Mobil's interests.
As part of
Chavez's efforts to implement ``21st century socialism'' in Venezuela, the government took control of four joint ventures in the country's Faja del Orinoco region in 2007.Someone should inform Chavez that ``21st century socialism'' is a myth...does not exist...