ConocoPhillips Secures Court Approval to Seize Payments to Venezuela's PDVSA
(Reuters) — ConocoPhillips on Friday got a Trinidad court to approve the seizing of payments from the Caribbean country to Venezuela's state oil company for a proposed offshore gas project between the two neighbors.
ConocoPhillips has for years been seeking to recover money from Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) for expropriating its assets. PDVSA had paid Conoco about $700 million through a settlement agreement but ceased payments in late 2019.
Conoco has since attempted to enforce arbitration rulings against Venezuela and PDVSA, including a $1.33 billion claim against PDVSA in Trinidad's high court.
Judge Frank Seepersad said his decision to appoint a receiver was made as there is a risk that PDVSA will move assets from Trinidad's jurisdiction to avoid paying ConocoPhillips and pointed to PDVSA's previous relocation of its European headquarters to Moscow.
Conoco's lawyers told the court they had identified the specific PDVSA assets they were targeting. Judge Seepersad said the order was made against PDVSA and its companies and not the state of Venezuela which was not the subject of ConocoPhillips' legal move.
ConocoPhillips declined to comment. PDVSA could not immediately be reached for comment and Trinidad's state-owned National Gas Company, which is a member of the Trinidad-Venezuela gas project, was not immediately available for comment.
The court-approved receiver will control any compensation payable to PDVSA for relinquishing a right to the joint Dragon Gas Field project, and any infrastructure it owns, court documents showed.
PDVSA has seven days after being served with the Trinidad court's latest decision to try and have it set aside.
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