Exxon to Cede Oil Project Ops to Venezuela by May

[cal04]

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM.N) plans to hand operations of a multibillion-dollar oil project to the Venezuelan state before a May 1 deadline imposed by President Hugo Chavez, industry sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Chavez this week signed a decree for the government to take a majority stake in four heavy crude upgrading projects in the Orinoco basin by May 1 as part of a nationalization drive toward Cuba-inspired socialism.

The move shows Exxon, the world's largest company, complying with Chavez's order to cede control of the Cerro Negro project despite doubts over whether private companies will in fact meet Chavez's ambitious deadline.

Energy authorities in 2006 extended an initial deadline to take control of oilfields operated by private and foreign oil companies, which operated the fields for three months as negotiations continued.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-exxon-venezuela-cerronegro.html

[Purveyor]

1. Venezuela/Chavez is going to be an interesting 'case study' to observe...

Godspeed to the Venezuelan people and their 'duly elected' leader.

[Maat]

3. I say, "Godspeed," also.

I had heard he negotiated a more favorable arrangement with Big Oil than he originally had planned - the author of the article stated that Chavez was far from being reckless and stupid; however, Big Oil going along with this is kind of weird, particularly in view of the fact that these Big Oil executives were all in favor of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, and are clearly willing for hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians to die for their control of oil reserves.

[Synnical]

2. Highly suspicious

Exxon/Mobil would never cede anything without profit motives.

[Joe Chi Minh]

4. They don't have a choice, do they?.