| Venezuela to tax oil firms for environmental damage |
| Published on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 |
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EDMONTON, Alberta (Reuters): Venezuela plans to introduce a new tax on oil companies to help pay for environmental damage and to compensate the Venezuelan people, oil minister Rafael Ramirez said on Tuesday.
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| Venezuelan Minister of Energy & Petroleum Rafael Ramirez. AFP PHOTO |
Ramirez, speaking to reporters at a conference in Edmonton, added that OPEC-member Venezuela was sending to China crude oil that US oil giant Exxon Mobil did not want for its Chalmette, Louisiana, refinery.
Venezuela has been in a dispute Exxon Mobil over the country's nationalization of a multibillion dollar project in the Orinoco last year.
Exxon Mobil won court rulings freezing some $12 billion in Venezuelan overseas oil assets in a move to secure compensation for the nationalized project, and Venezuela responded by suspending sales to the top US oil company.
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