(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-19 11:40

CARACAS - Venezuela's Energy Minister Tuesday hailed a British court's decision to throw out a legal challenge by US oil giant Exxon Mobil to freeze 12 billion US dollars of Venezuelan assets.

Describing the decision as a "victory over blackmail," Rafael Ramirez told a press conference that "Exxon's arrogance has been demolished thanks to the sentence of Judge Paul Walker."

Venezuela and Exxon are in international arbitration over the 2007 takeover of an oil project Exxon once ran. The company wants at least 5 billion dollars in compensation, but Venezuela insists the assets are worth less than 1 billion.

Exxon had won a temporary freeze of assets belonging to Venezuela's state-run energy giant Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in British jurisdiction on Jan 24.

However, Judge Walker said earlier Tuesday that PDVSA and Exxon are not carrying out arbitration in London and that PDVSA is not accused of fraud, therefore there is no need for an asset freeze order.

Ramirez also warned that Venezuela would take action against Exxon, but did not specify what form that would take.

Venezuela and Exxon are currently negotiating at the World Bank's International Investment Dispute Resolution Center over President Hugo Chavez's nationalization of the country's oil industry.

Exxon Mobil spokesman Alan Jeffers said the company has no plans to appeal against the judge's decision. Jeffers said the judge based his decision on jurisdictional issues, but did not question Exxon Mobil's broader case.

"The important thing, from our perspective, is the court did not question the merits of our underlying claim," he said.