Petroven Company

Venezuela on Tuesday suspended all commercial relations with Exxon Mobil Corp., including any deliveries of crude and oil products, amid a bitter dispute over the nationalization of the U.S. oil giant's heavy oil field. The move comes days after Exxon Mobil won backing from courts in the United States, Britain and the Netherlands to freeze as much as $12 billion in assets belonging to the Venezuelan state oil company as part of its strategy to recoup its investment.

Venezuela on Tuesday suspended all commercial relations with Exxon Mobil Corp., including any deliveries of crude and oil products, amid a bitter dispute over the nationalization of the U.S. oil giant's heavy oil field. The move comes days after Exxon Mobil won backing from courts in the United States, Britain and the Netherlands to freeze as much as $12 billion in assets belonging to the Venezuelan state oil company as part of its strategy to recoup its investment.

An official of Oxnard-based Benton Oil & Gas Co. branded as "grandstanding" a Venezuelan congressional leader's demand for an investigation of a contract for Benton to reactivate three of that country's abandoned oil fields. The pact calls for Benton to join with a Venezuelan construction firm and an affiliate of the national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. in reactivating fields said to contain about 100 million barrels of oil.

Venezuela's state oil company reportedly moved to protect its assets from Exxon Mobil Corp.'s legal reach Monday as experts speculated that the South American energy giant may be suffering a severe cash shortage. Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, instructed its traders to deposit oil receipts with UBS bank in Switzerland, the Reuters news agency reported Monday. The move follows Exxon Mobil's victory last week persuading U.S.

Venezuela May Sell Citgo Stake: Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez has ordered his country's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, to sell half of its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, Citgo Petroleum Corp. Perez said he made the decision on Citgo "because it's no longer a good business." However, Perez said the state company will have to wait until the market recovers to sell the shares at a profit. Petroleos de Venezuela bought 50% of Citgo in 1986 and the remainder in 1990.

Unocal expects to receive more than $500 million from the sale of half its Chicago-area oil refinery to Venezuela's national oil company, the U.S. oil firm said Friday. Los Angeles-based Unocal said it has tentatively agreed to form a joint venture that, as previously reported, would operate a 147,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Lemont, Ill. The venture would be owned 50-50 by Unocal and Petroleos de Venezuela, or Petroven.

Venezuela's state oil company reportedly moved to protect its assets from Exxon Mobil Corp.'s legal reach Monday as experts speculated that the South American energy giant may be suffering a severe cash shortage. Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, instructed its traders to deposit oil receipts with UBS bank in Switzerland, the Reuters news agency reported Monday. The move follows Exxon Mobil's victory last week persuading U.S.

Benton Oil & Gas Co. in Oxnard said Venezuela's national oil company has granted Benton and its joint-venture partner, the Venezuelan construction company Vinccler CA, the right to further develop three oil fields in Venezuela. The joint venture will make all investments needed to reactivate the fields and will receive an undisclosed fee for each barrel of crude oil produced, Benton said. Initial production should begin by mid-1993, it added.

Chevron Corp. said it will sell an unused refinery and an operating shipping and storage facility in the Bahamas to Venezuela's state-owned oil company. No terms were disclosed for the mostly cash deal with Petroleos de Venezuela, which owns the Citgo oil company. The deal must be approved by the governments of the Bahamas and Venezuela.

Tens of thousands of workers in Venezuela's oil industry went on strike to demand a pay hike. Union leaders said 92% of 40,000 workers honored the strike. Petroleos de Venezuela, the government oil monopoly, insisted that operations weren't affected. Venezuela, the world's third-largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the U.S., says it can withstand a strike for seven days before exports are affected.

Exxon Mobil Corp. won a round in its bitter fight against Venezuela's state oil company Thursday as courts in several countries said they would freeze $12 billion in international assets held by Petroleos de Venezuela. Last year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nationalized a heavy oil field in eastern Venezuela, and Exxon Mobil has been seeking to recover the value of its investment in the site ever since.

BP and Royal Dutch Shell have agreed to form joint ventures with Venezuela's state oil company, replacing contracts under which they pumped crude independently, Venezuela's oil minister said Thursday. BP and Royal Dutch Shell are among 15 companies that have signed transitional agreements to move toward the joint ventures, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said.

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA may sell some parts of Citgo Petroleum Corp., its U.S. refining and marketing affiliate, PDVSA's new president said Sunday. "We're looking at it," said Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela's energy minister and the newly named president of PDVSA, in an interview with local television in Caracas. "It depends on the review we make. We'll see what suits us and what doesn't." Ramirez, who was appointed PDVSA chief by President Hugo Chavez on Nov.

President Hugo Chavez said seven executives who led monthlong strikes and protests against government-appointed leadership at the state-owned oil monopoly were fired by the company's board of directors over the weekend. Twelve other Petroleos de Venezuela executives have been sent into early retirement, he said Sunday, adding that any other employees who continue leading protests will be fired.

Tens of thousands of workers in Venezuela's oil industry went on strike to demand a pay hike. Union leaders said 92% of 40,000 workers honored the strike. Petroleos de Venezuela, the government oil monopoly, insisted that operations weren't affected. Venezuela, the world's third-largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the U.S., says it can withstand a strike for seven days before exports are affected.

Chevron Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. oil company, and Petroleos de Venezuela are in talks regarding a $1.5-billion venture to manufacture aromatics--the building blocks of plastics, solvents and pharmaceuticals. If San Francisco-based Chevron and PDVSA unit Proesca decide to go ahead, the venture could begin production in 2002, a PDVSA spokesman said. Production would be about 1.3 million tons a year of aromatics, including benzene and xylene.

Chevron Venezuela said it expects to sign an agreement within five weeks to build an $800-million to $900-million aromatics plant in Venezuela. The project will be a 50-50 joint venture between Chevron Venezuela, a unit of San Francisco-based Chevron Corp., and Productos Especiales, or Proesca, a unit of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela. The plant will process refinery byproducts into commercial petroleum aromatics such as benzene, toluene and xylene.

Chevron Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. oil company, and Petroleos de Venezuela are in talks regarding a $1.5-billion venture to manufacture aromatics--the building blocks of plastics, solvents and pharmaceuticals. If San Francisco-based Chevron and PDVSA unit Proesca decide to go ahead, the venture could begin production in 2002, a PDVSA spokesman said. Production would be about 1.3 million tons a year of aromatics, including benzene and xylene.

Chevron Venezuela said it expects to sign an agreement within five weeks to build an $800-million to $900-million aromatics plant in Venezuela. The project will be a 50-50 joint venture between Chevron Venezuela, a unit of San Francisco-based Chevron Corp., and Productos Especiales, or Proesca, a unit of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela. The plant will process refinery byproducts into commercial petroleum aromatics such as benzene, toluene and xylene.