Exxon took Venezuela to the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, seeking as much as $12 billion in compensation after Mr. Chávez ordered the nationalization of the Cerro Negro oil project in 2007.
“I tell you now, we will not recognize any decision” by the center, Mr. Chávez said during a televised speech. He has repeatedly accused the United States oil major of using unfair deals in the past to “rob” Venezuela, an OPEC member, of its resources.
“They are trying the impossible: to get us to pay them,” he said. “We are not going to pay them anything.”
It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Chávez was also referring to about 20 other cases that Venezuela faces before the World Bank’s arbitration panel that were prompted by a wave of state takeovers in recent years.
They include separate multibillion-dollar proceedings brought by ConocoPhillips, another major American oil company.
Last week, an arbitration panel with the International Chamber of Commerce awarded Exxon $908 million in a separate case related to the Cerro Negro nationalization.
On Saturday, the Venezuelan oil minister, Rafael Ramírez, said he did not expect a verdict in Exxon’s World Bank case until the end of this year. Exxon said arguments were scheduled to start in February.
Both cases have been closely watched by the industry for precedents in future disputes between companies and oil-producing countries, which have increasingly sought a greater share of revenue as prices soar and reserves become tougher to find.
For years, Venezuela’s socialist leader has accused foreign oil companies of plundering the nation’s reserves, but he has maintained close ties with many of them.
Some lawyers said the decision by the International Chamber of Commerce covered only a commercial dispute between Exxon and Petróleos de Venezuela, the state-run oil company, over earnings Exxon lost as a result of the takeover.
By contrast, the World Bank case is over compensation for Exxon’s assets, and specialists say it could yield a larger award.
The government has insisted Exxon receive only slightly more than the $750 million it said it invested in the project, but Venezuela said in September it had offered to settle for $1 billion.
For years, Mr. Chávez has confronted oil companies with tax increases and contract changes aimed at increasing revenue from the industry to pay for state-led antipoverty programs.
Venezuela’s push to increase control over its oil industry has been followed by similar efforts in other oil-producing nations. Critics say it has scared investors away from Venezuela and left crude production stagnant.
But some oil companies have remained eager to invest in Venezuela’s Orinoco extra heavy oil belt, which is considered one of the world’s largest mostly untapped reserves of crude.
Chevron of the United States and Repsol of Spain signed deals in 2010 for new multibillion-dollar projects there.
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