Venezuela has seized control of 11 oil rigs owned by Helmerich. The oil wells have been idle for a while. Helmerich turned them off because the PDVSA (the state ran oil company) has not paid $43 million dollars for work that Helmerich says it was owed.
Venezuela countered that it should not owe that much since oil prices unexpectedly collapsed two years ago. Basically, Venezuela doesn't have the money to pay, contract be damned. Helmerich refused to renogatiate, so the take over was declared. Some companies have accepted re-negotiations. They have managed to keep their oil wells, at least for now. The action has been condemned by the US State Department. "We would just call on them to--if they did make such a move--to compensate the owners of those wells," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner. We'll see if this hard-line approach means anything. It will be interesting to see if anything else happens. Since 2007 Caracas has nationalized companies in industries from oil to utilities, to telecoms, cement, steel and banking. Article <http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100625-712816.html> J - Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it - Mark Twain ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:322387 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
