<article><p>Venezuela is appealing five decisions from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (Icsid) that ordered it to pay foreign companies a total of $2.9bn in compensation for expropriated assets.</p><p>Venezuela will challenge a $46mn award issued on 13 March to US company Tidewater for 15 offshore service vessels that were expropriated in 2009, energy minister Asdrubal Chavez said. </p><p>Venezuela already filed an appeal with Icsid on 2 February seeking a review and reduction of an October 2014 decision awarding ExxonMobil $1.6bn for the May 2007 takeover of its 41.67pc stake in the 120,000 b/d Cerro Negro extra-heavy crude upgrader.</p><p>PdV holds 83.3pc of the upgrader, now called PetroMonagas. Russian state-owned Rosneft holds the remaining 16.7pc.</p><p>Caracas is also appealing a September 2014 award of $746mn to Canada´s Gold Reserve for the nationalization of its Brisas and Choco 5 gold mines in Bolivar state, Chavez said. </p><p>Separate appeals have also been issued for a 10 March award of $455mn for US glassmaker Owens-Illinois, and a $36mn award issued in November 2014 to Swiss Flughafen Zürich and Chilean Ingeniería IDC for the suspension of a 20-year contract to operate the Margarita international airport.</p><p>"Venezuela's government is studying each of the five Icsid awards with great care to verify the calculations made by the arbitration panels," Chavez said. "Venezuela is confident it will obtain significant reductions in all five cases it is appealing."</p><p>Venezuela has about 25 arbitration disputes seeking compensation for nationalized assets pending at Icsid.</p><p>The largest dispute is a $30bn claim by ConocoPhillips for the 2007 takeover of its stakes in two Orinoco upgraders and an offshore oil venture in the Gulf of Paria. </p><p>ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips declined to comment.</p><p>Executives with Gold Reserve, Owens-Illinois and Tidewater said after their respective Icsid decisions were announced that they would pursue payment through all legal jurisdictions.</p><p>js/pg</p><p><br> Send comments to <a href="mailto:feedback@argusmedia.com" target="_parent"> feedback@argusmedia.com </a></p><p><u><a href="http://www.argusmedia.com/Info/General/News" target="_TOP"> Request more information </a></u> about Argus' energy and commodity news, data and analysis services. </p><p><i> Copyright © 2015 Argus Media Ltd - <a href="http://www.argusmedia.com/" target="_TOP"> www.argusmedia.com </a> - All rights reserved. </i></p></article>
