Life immitating Television

[Wahalla]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1869081/

An episode of the good wife... with Marguilles... is copied below

http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article280136.ece

Helmerich sues Venezuela over seized rigs
Helmerich & Payne has filed suit against Venezuela in a US court for "forcibly taking" 11 of its drilling rigs, days after the South American country offered to pay Exxon Mobil $1 billion for nationalizing the largest US oil company's assets in 2007, a report said.

News wires 26 September 2011 20:11 GMT

President Hugo Chavez-run Venezuela last year nationalized Helmerich's fleet, which was idled for months following a dispute over pending payments by the OPEC member's state oil company, PDVSA, Reuters reported.

"Plaintiffs seek damages for the taking of their Venezuelan drilling business in violation of international law and for breach of contract," Helmerich said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

"At this time, the net impact of this matter on the company's consolidated financial results, if any, cannot be reasonably estimated."

The lawsuit, filed in the District Court for Columbia on 23 September, is against Venezuela and state-owned companies Petroleos de Venezuela and PDVSA Petroleo.

"As financial charges from this event have already been factored in, any potential recourse received by Helmerich from Venezuela would be an incremental positive," RBC Capital Markets analyst Victor Marchon wrote in a note, referring to Helmerich recently taking a $102.7 million impairment charge.

The company classified its former Venezuelan operation, an operating segment within its international land segment, as a discontinued operation in the third quarter of fiscal 2010.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company is also in two arbitrations against third parties not affiliated with PDVSA or the Venezuelan government to collect $75 million relating to the seizure of its property in Venezuela.

Helmerich's shares were down marginally at $44.30 in afternoon trade on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Published: 26 September 2011 20:11 GMT | Last updated: 26 September 2011 20:13 GMT

[Archie68]

Re: Life immitating Television

Sadly, only companies like Helmerich can keep Venezeula's oil flowing. These companies may have taken too much but at least they were competent. Chavez has replace competent theives with incompetent know-nothings.

Venezuela's oil production is going down.

We saw this with Mugabe. Replace the greedy competent with the politically picked incompetent. Do I need to write more?

[Wahalla]

Re: Life immitating Television

After kicking out all those companies with much holobolou... I made the comment that they would all be back in in a few years... when he fired all thoise strikers.. I made the comment that the oil companies and service companies would simply employ them at better rates than PDVSA thus by passing the difficulty... and I was called an idiot and stupid on here.. I didnt understand the Venezuelan system....Yet yesterday....( I would add I had a discussion with one of the "forgien" experts when they did the aprisal well as how to maximise production, reduce damage . so this idiot assisted in the development of the feild. Funny they never call the one who called me an idiot! )


Eni, Repsol in Venezuela wait
Italy's Eni and Spain's Repsol are waiting for Venezuela to approve the extraction of gas from a field that has the biggest deposits found so far off the OPEC nation, a report said.

News wires 04 October 2011 20:41 GMT

South America's biggest oil exporter is focused on developing its fledgling natural gas industry to generate power and help address electricity shortages that triggered power rationing across the country last year, sources close to the project told Reuters.

Amid delays and setbacks to other offshore development plans, Eni and Repsol completed their exploratory phase at the Cardon 4 block last year with the certification of more than 15 trillion cubic feet.

The government says it has the ability to produce 2.5 billion cubic feet per day, almost as much gas as the domestic market in Venezuela consumes.

"We're still not at the infrastructure stage," a source at one of the companies told Reuters.

"We have agreed the tariff and we are negotiating with (state oil company) PDVSA about what component of it will be in bolivars and how much will be in dollars while we wait for the declaration that the project is commercial."

Venezuela's currency complexities -- including strict exchange controls, restricted access to hard currency and a tiered rate for converting local bolivars -- provide headaches for most foreign companies operating in the country.

Once the government has declared the project commercial, the two companies will partner with PDVSA to exploit the block with investments estimated at more than $4.5 billion.

Another source close to the talks said the tariff was higher than $3 per million British thermal units, which is close to the international price. The project's profitability will depend on how much is paid in local currency.

"We are happy with the tariff," said the first source. "Now we are just missing the agreement on how it will be paid."

The source added foreign companies operating in Venezuela were wary after a senior PDVSA official said last week that the government was freezing its LNG projects because the gas was needed domestically, and low prices did not support the cost involved.

Cardon 4 includes the promising Perla field, which would be the first offshore area to be exploited in Venezuela.

Early production from the project is estimated to be 80 million cubic feet per day and to begin in October 2012.

The country sits on some of the world's largest gas reserves, which the government says amount to more than 195 trillion cubic feet. But it has yet to begin producing any commercial gas and instead imports supplies from Colombia.

Published: 04 October 2011 20:41 GMT | Last updated: 04 October 2011 20:45 GMT

[Archie68]

Re: Life immitating Television

I am a fellow idiot. I am insane too.

This I know, there are many that have never done anything that enjoy dictating how things should be done.

Poor Venezuela. They will pay for the fool they wanted.