CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that his country would not recognize a ruling by a World Bank tribunal in a multibillion-dollar arbitration case with Exxon Mobil Corp.
Exxon took Venezuela to the World Bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID, seeking as much as $12 billion in compensation after Chavez ordered the nationalization of the Cerro Negro oil project in 2007.
"I tell you: we will not recognize any decision," Chavez said during a televised speech. He has repeatedly accused the US oil major of using unfair deals in the past to "rob" the South American OPEC member of its natural resources.
