Venezuela says Conoco compensation talks progress

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Venezuela says Conoco compensation talks progress
Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:37pm EST

CARACAS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Venezuela is progressing toward striking a deal with ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) over compensation for a multibillion-dollar project nationalized last year, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Thursday.

The minister contrasted the negotiations with a legal offensive waged by Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) over payment for a project that was also seized in the same nationalization drive.

"Conoco has asked for and maintained a level of communication that allows a friendly solution to our dispute," he said in a speech to Congress. "We are on the way to reaching an agreement."
(snip)

The U.S. company also said it had no plans to follow the same path as Exxon, which has won court orders to freeze temporarily $12 billion of Venezuela's assets in its dispute.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSN1446608120080214?rpc=401&

[northzax]

1. glad people are talking

I notice that the US court refused PDVSA's appeal of the US freeze order yesterday, can we expect Mr. Chavez to hold true to his word and cease shipments to the US? or was that a bluff?

[Peace Patriot]

3. I don't know, Northzax, but if you were Venezuela, what would you do in regard

to a giant multinational with its talons in the U.S. government, who have colluded on, a) a violent rightwing military coup attempt to overthrow the democratic government, b) an oil professionals' strike trying to bring ruin to the country's economy and topple its democratic government, c) are pouring multi-millions into rightwing groups in Venezuela, and billions into military aid into the hostile rightwing forces in Colombia, where plots to assassinate the president of Venezuela have been exposed by courageous prosecutors and judges (precipitating a four hour meeting between Pres. Chavez and Colombia's Pres. Uribe in which Uribe apologized to Chavez, and prompting the rightwing opposition candidate in Venezuela in Dec 06 to publicly disavow the plot), and d) have Donald Rumsfeld as their strategist?

"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

Think you might get pissed enough to threaten to cut off U.S. oil imports from Venezuela? Think you might even follow through on such threats? Think you might at least jawbone about it, and use what power you have against the combined force of the world's biggest superpower, and the world's most fatass corporation--which just reported the highest quarterly profits of any U.S. corporation, ever--to get them to back off on their nefarious, Rumsfeldian schemes?

Do tell. You posed the question. And it sounds like you're really curious about whether "we" can "expect Mr. Chavez to hold true to his word" or whether he was just bluffing?

Sounds like you have an opinion about it. Why don't you say what it is, instead of posing a loaded question to yourself?

And when, to your knowledge of history, did bluffing cease being an important strategy, especially of the weak against the power of "organized money" (as FDR put it)?

Is the Rumsfeldian meme today that Chavez is a "buffoon," a "clown," a "liar" or a "tyrant" (as Donald Rumsfeld would have us believe)?

A "tyrant" over Exxon Mobile!

:rofl:

Buffoon combined with liar, I guess. Issuing hot air threats, as the sharks gather round the vast poor population of Venezuelan Chavez supporters, in whose interest he is seeking a 60% cut for Venezuela from their own oil. It might make anybody mouth off a bit at the coming sharkfest, and try to arouse the energy, the adrenalin, the fighting spirit, the unity that the poor need in the wars against them by the rich.

Forgive me, Northzax. I really do want to hear your opinion about whether Chavez will be "true to his word" or not. I'll forgive you your loaded question. Here are mine:

Do you agree with Donald Rumsfeld that Chavez is a "tyrant"?

What do you think Rumsfeld means by the U.S. taking "swift" action in support of "friends and allies" in South America?

Do you agree that Venezuela in a sovereign nation, with the right to control its oil industry, and use those profits for the benefit of the people, and that Exxon Mobile is not a sovereign entity of any kind, and is a mere corporation with no inherent rights to do business, to profit, and to own property in perpetuity?

[Judi Lynn]

4. Someone here mentioned Bush's "friends and allies" in S. A., would be Colombia, and Peru!

Of course Colombia is a heavy stone around the necks of U.S. taxpayers, the THIRD LARGEST U.S.FOREIGN AID RECIPIENT in the world, FOREVER, or as long as Waldo Alvaro Uribe remains President of Colombia, as he is working on Colombia bestowing upon him another record-breaking opportunity, a THIRD TERM in office, in a country where Presidents only get ONE.

I still have yet to hear any shrieking from the right-wing posters who infest this message board, as they wail, chew the scenery, and pound the walls over Uribe's move to take a third term, after all the yammering we've noted from them concerning Hugo Chavez's statement he would like to run for a third full Presidential term.

Uribe has never had to live on Colombia's budget alone! He's always had lotsa "mad money" from us, the U.S. taxpayers, to throw around. He couldn't make it without that "walking around money." Hence, he will ALWAYS have to stand by, hat in hand, ready to do _Bush's bidding, in order to get the next shipment of money.

Colombia, and Peru! That's the extent of _Bush's "friends and allies."



Colombian President and his American benefactor.



Peru's President Alan Garcia, dancing as fast as he can.

[Peace Patriot]

5. I was thinking more of Rumsfeld's "friends and allies" among the fascist thugs

in Venezuela and Bolivia, who have planned and carried out one violent rightwing coup attempt in Venezuela, and many efforts of destabilization, and, in Bolivia, are plotting to split off the oil/gas rich provinces from the central government. The Bush Junta's "friends and allies" are the rich fascist elites who, if they gain power, torture and slaughter union organizers and other political leftists and advocates of the poor, in the interest of U.S. corporations like Exxon Mobile. That's what Rumsfeld & Co. want in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina, and, really, anywhere there is oil--tyranny in the interest of "organized money." (I love that FDR phrase--he said "organized money hates me--and I welcome their hatred.")

But, of course, of formal "friends and allies," you are right. The Bush Junta has only two, in all of the South America. Colombia and Peru. Colombia--larded with billions of U.S. tax dollars in military aid--is where the rightwing paramilitaries that are closely tied to the Uribe government (Bush's pals) have been hatching plots to assassinate Chavez and overthrow the democratic government of Venezuela. They are also causing trouble in Venezuela's border areas with murders, drug trafficking and "war on drugs" incursions. Colombia is a hotbed of fascist planning. Blackwater is active in Colombia, recruiting for Iraq--and no doubt training death squads for Rumsfeld's Oil War II--South America.

In Peru, the Bush Junta managed to install a corrupt "free trader" who is described as a leftist but who is about as leftist as Hillary Clinton. Peru is seething with rebellion among the true leftists (majorityists)--the poor, the indigenous--who almost won the last presidential election with a novice candidate, Ollanta Humala, who knocked the fascist candidate out of the race. The Bushites had to compromise and back the "free trade" leftist (almost a contradiction in terms--a "free trader" is pro-corporate, by definition). Once Alan Garcia has ruined Peru's economy--as has happened in so many countries (notably Argentina) where corrupt leaders welcomed "neo-liberalism"--the Peruvians will throw him out, and join the revolution that has swept the continent.

Then there will be only one U.S. ally in South America: Colombia. This is the Bush Junta legacy--the U.S. has lost true friends and allies everywhere in the world, including throughout the western hemisphere. This is particularly bad for us citizens of the U.S. as to Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina, the most lively democracies in South America, with elections that put our own to shame for their transparency. These are true friends of the people of the U.S. We should have a social justice alliance with them, and we would if we had a decent government. They are pointing the way to a better future for all of the Americas. And, of course Rumsfeld & co. and DLC 'Democrats' hate them. They are countries where the "power of the people" is on the rise, as should be the case in democracies. This is also true in Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Nicaragua (and will likely occur in Paraguay this year, as well), but this peaceful revolution is strongest, best organized, and most visionary in the aforementioned Bolivarian democracies in the Andes region. And their oil--the object of Rumsfeld's and Exxon Mobile's lust--gives them a resource with which to bootstrap the poor, and the financial clout to throw off the World Bank loan sharks, for instance, to reject U.S.-dominated "free trade" (and the phony, failed U.S. "war on drugs), and to develop locally controlled infrastructure and institutions (such as the Bank of the South).

I don't think Peru has oil (or a lot of it, like Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina), so they are likely a low priority to the Bushites--just a slave labor client. Colombia has oil and Occidental Petroleum, so they are a high priority (and get billions in military aid with which to torture, murder and oppress the poor, and as a launching pad for plots against the free oil states).

In short, wherever there is a rich, greedy, conscienceless minority, who want to regain the power to rob, torture and murder the poor, there you will find Rumsfeld/Bush "friends and allies", but I believe Rumsfeld is specifically referring to the fascist elites within Venezuela and Bolivia, in particular, and what he means by "swift" U.S. action in support of these "friends and allies" is U.S. military intervention in support of fascist coups in these countries--to break the back of the Bolivarian revolution. And the Colombian death squads are ready to facilitate this. That is why Rumsfeld's op-ed, which has a title about Chavez ("tyrants like Chavez"), is mostly about Colombia, and rewarding the Colombian fascists with a "free trade" deal (one more tool with which to wage economic warfare against Venezuela and others). He also talks about the forces of evil needing a more sophisticated propaganda presence on the internet. (Did you catch that, Judi? The truth is winning!) Cuz there is no more progressive force in this world than a well-informed, empowered U.S. citizenry, freed of stolen elections. The dark lords know this. That's why they spend so much time and energy lying to us and installing "trade secret"-programmed voting machines.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Venezuela In Amicable Talks With Conoco - Oil Min

Venezuela In Amicable Talks With Conoco - Oil Min

February 14, 2008: 01:24 PM EST


CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- Venezuela's oil minister said Thursday during an address to lawmakers that the government's international arbitration procedure with ConocoPhillips (COP) remained friendly and that the dispute over the company's payments for a nationalized oil project would have an amicable outcome.

Rafael Ramirez, the oil mister, said that "in the case of Conoco we have maintained conversations that allow for an amicable resolution to this dispute."

Ramirez, who was addressing the National Assembly to explain an ongoing and increasingly bitter legal row with Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), said that laws imposed by previous governments had made the country a "hostage of international arbitration."

The government took majority stakes in four projects in the oil-rich Orico belt in 2007. The companies were given the option to stay as minority partners or leave. Exxon and ConocoPhillips left, and they are both in an arbitration process to determine their payment for the projects.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200802141324DOWJONESDJONLINE000930_FORTUNE5.htm