Venezuela has no plans to halt oil exports to the United States as long as the U.S. does not invade Venezuela, the nation's president, Hugo Chavez, said in his weekly broadcast Alo Presidente.
"If it assaults us, and tries to harm us as it has previously, then we will have to take the decision not to send them even one drop of oil," Chavez said.
In the same show last week, Chavez said the nation was "ready" to stop shipments to the U.S. in response to judicial action by U.S. oil company Exxon Mobil to freeze 12 billion U.S. dollars of assets belonging to state-run oil company Petroleos Venezuela in January.
The U.S. oil company is seeking compensation for its forced exit from the Orinoco Petroliferous Strip, as a result of the Venezuelan government's May 2007 decision to raise its stake in the nation's oil operations to 85 percent from around 45 percent earlier.
Eleven of the 13 foreign companies operating in Venezuela accepted the terms, but Exxon Mobil and Conoco Phillips, who controlled 51 percent of their operations prior to May 2007, refused to comply.
The Orinoco Petroliferous Strip has 235 billion barrels of petrol in deposits, which Chavez estimated as equivalent to 200 years' worth of oil. It produces around 600,000 barrels a day.
Source: Xinhua
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