Court releases Venezuelan assets

Hugo Chavez accused the US government of being involved

The High Court in London has suspended an order that froze $12bn (£6bn) of the assets of Venezuela's state oil firm, PDVSA, in a dispute with ExxonMobil.

Exxon is seeking $12bn in compensation from PDVSA after its oilfields were nationalised last year.

Venezuela has settled with other international oil firms, but says Exxon exaggerated the value of its assets.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has accused the US government of being involved in the dispute.

No fraud

Presiding Judge Paul Walker issued a statement explaining his ruling.

"In the absence of any exceptional feature such as fraud, and in the absence of substantial assets of PDVSA located here, the fact that the seat of arbitration is not here makes it inappropriate to grant an order," he said.

The assets were originally frozen pending arbitration on the value of Exxon's former holdings.

Venezuela's ambassador in the UK, Samuel Moncada, hailed the result as "the beginning of the end" of what he called Exxon's "campaign of harassment against PDVSA around the world".

"The English judge rejected Exxon's intention to use an English court as an instrument of coercion against a Venezuelan company," he added.

So far, there has been no comment from Exxon on the ruling.