Bill Wilson MSP

19 March 2008 UPDATE:  Since the press release below was published, the High Court has thrown out Exxon Mobil's request that PDVSA's assets in the UK be frozen.  Dr Wilson was delighted to support this Scottish Parliament motion:

Short Title: ExxonMobil and Venezuelan Oil Assets

S3M-01604 Jamie Hepburn (Central Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament welcomes the decision by the High Court in London to suspend an earlier court order that froze US $12 billion (£6 billion) of the assets of Venezuela’s state oil firm, PDVSA; notes the comments of the Venezuelan Ambassador to the United Kingdom, who said that ExxonMobil had been using courts outside Venezuela to conduct a “campaign of harassment against PDVSA around the world”, and calls on all multi-national companies to respect the sovereign rights of countries to manage their natural resources as they see fit.

Read the background story. 

Press Release: 

MSP Appalled by International Resistance to Venezuelan Poverty Relief

Dr Bill Wilson, MSP for the West of Scotland, has signed a statement supporting the Venezuelan Government’s objection to the injunction granted to ExxonMobil by an English court to freeze £6.14bn of a Venezuelan oil company’s assets.  Dr Wilson urges the international community to recognise and support the Venezuelan effort to relieve poverty in Venezuela.

As Venezuela seeks to further its drive to nationalise Venezuelan oil resources and provide poverty relief to its citizens, all the largest international oil companies chose to sell a majority of their shares to the Venezuelan oil company, PDVSA, all, that is, except ExxonMobil.  30 out of 32 oil contracts, including nearly all international oil companies, have been renegotiated with PDVSA. Dissatisfied with the PDVSA offer, ExxonMobil chose to withdraw from Venezuela and seek international litigation, filing cases to freeze PDVSA oil assets in New York, the Netherlands, and London.  A court in London granted ExxonMobil’s request to freeze £6.14bn of PDVSA oil assets.

“PDVSA is a Venezuelan state-owned company,” commented Dr Wilson, “This asset freeze disregards Venezuelan national sovereignty.  Venezuela should have the right to use its natural resources to benefit its people — I applaud the efforts of the Venezuelan government to relieve poverty and redistribute wealth in Venezuela.  I should add that for the same reason I am opposed to the Oil Law in Iraq, a law that would hand control of Iraq’s oil resources to multinational companies and harm the reconstruction of that ravaged nation.” Dr Wilson also supported the motion submitted by Jaime Hepburn MSP in the Scottish Parliament regarding the oil asset freeze by ExxonMobil.

The PDVSA lawyers hope to show that the £6.14bn freeze is a gross overestimate of the value of the shares, and demonstrate that the highest estimate of their worth given earlier by ExxonMobil never exceeded £2.55bn. In an effort to offer compromise, the Venezuelan government has also urged ExxonMobil to comply with the terms of their 1995 contract with PDVSA by seeking arbitration through the International Centre for Settlement of Investment.

“I gladly add my name to the Venezuelan statement and I whole-heartedly support Venezuelan efforts to relieve poverty,” said Bill Wilson.  “Having recently met Dr Moncada, the Venezuelan ambassador to UK and Ireland, I am convinced of the sincerity of these efforts.”

Notes to Editors

A. Dr Bill Wilson’s related Press Releases:

Iraqi MPs’ Oil Law votes bought?
Tackling Poverty in Venezuela, Tackling Poverty in Scotland

B. Articles on the ExxonMobil freeze:

The Washington Post
BBC News
The Guardian

C. Venezuelan Information Centre and Venezuelan Government Statement

D. Report on Venezuelan Effort to Reduce Poverty