Chavez tries bad faith after arbitration award of Exxon

AP/Houston Chronicle:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that his government should pull out of a World Bank-affiliated arbitration body and won’t recognize its decisions. 
Exxon Mobil Corp. is one of more than a dozen companies with arbitration cases against Venezuela pending before the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID. 
Chavez announced his decision while referring to a more than $900 million award that Exxon Mobil recently won in another arbitration case before the International Chamber of Commerce. 
“Now they’re threatening us in the ICSID,” Chavez said on his Sunday television program. “We have to get out of that ICSID. And I’ll go ahead and say it: We won’t recognize any of ICSID’s decisions.” 
Analysts said that if Chavez follows through on the plan, it could hurt Venezuela’s ability to obtain credit internationally and attract oil investments. It also might prompt companies in disputes with Chavez’s government to try to freeze the country’s assets, including refineries it owns in the U.S.
... 
Venezuela has significant assets in the US under the Citgo brand.  Venezuela is already suffering declining production since it tried to take majority control of the assets of major oil companies like Exxon.  It lacks the technical capacity to exploit its oil resources which are primarily heavy crude that requires special refining before it can be used.  The US is one of the few places that has that capacity.  By alienating the financing  markets and teh major oil companies, Chavez will cause Venezuela to have a rapidly depleting resource.

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