Chavez says Venezuela will continue oil exports to US

Chavez can't live without Venezuela money........

vdebate reporter

Feb. 17, 2008, 3:20PM

Chavez says Venezuela will continue oil exports to U.S.
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER

Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez sent a soothing message to American motorists on Sunday, saying Venezuela is not preparing to cut off oil shipments to the United States.
The socialist leader rattled oil markets last Sunday when he threatened to halt shipments to the United States in retaliation for Exxon Mobil Corp.'s success in persuading courts in the U.S. and Europe to freeze Venezuelan assets.
"We don't have plans to stop sending oil to the United States," Chavez said during a visit to heavy-oil projects in Venezuela's petroleum-rich Orinoco River basin that were nationalized last year.
But if the United States "attacks Venezuela or tries to harm us, we will have to make the decision not to send a single drop of our oil to the United States," he added.
U.S. officials have denied planning to attack Venezuela.
Chavez's administration — a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro — is locked in a legal battle with the Irving-based oil company over compensation for nationalization of one of four heavy-oil projects in the Orinoco River basin.
Exxon Mobil — the world's largest publicly traded oil company — wants to freeze billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets in the United States and Europe to guarantee a payoff in the event it wins a decision by an international arbitration panel.
The United States relies on Venezuela for about 10 percent of its oil imports.