Which oil companies were expropriated by Venezuela and how much was owed to each?
Executive summary
Venezuela’s 2007 hydrocarbon nationalizations led to high-profile seizures of assets from several foreign oil firms — most notably ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil — triggering multiple international arbitration awards requiring Venezuela (or state entities) to pay billions in compensation [1] [2] [3]. Awards vary by tribunal and claimant: ConocoPhillips has won roughly $8.7 billion in one ICSID award plus additional awards from other tribunals; ExxonMobil won awards amounting to roughly $1.6 billion from ICSID and had earlier ICC/ICC-related rulings that produced differing payment figures and deductions [2] [4] [3] [5].
1. Which companies were seized and why that mattered
The nationalizations ordered under Hugo Chávez in 2007 forced restructuring of joint ventures so PDVSA would hold majority control, and while many majors accepted new mixed-company terms (Chevron, BP, Total, Statoil), ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips refused and had their Venezuelan assets seized — a central fact in subsequent arbitration claims [1] [6].
2. ConocoPhillips: the largest single arbitration victory and its components
ConocoPhillips prevailed in an ICSID tribunal that in one ruling ordered Venezuela to pay about $8.7 billion for the expropriation of its Hamaca, Petrozuata and Corocoro investments [2] [7]; Reuters and Conoco’s press materials describe awards and interest that push the practical claim into the multi‑billion dollar range, and Conoco’s total awards from separate tribunals were reported as around $10.7 billion when combined with other cases and tribunals [4] [2].
3. ExxonMobil: multiple awards, offsets and practical recovery questions
An ICSID tribunal ordered roughly $1.6 billion in compensation to ExxonMobil for nationalization-related losses tied to projects such as Cerro Negro and La Ceiba, although Reuters and BBC reporting note prior ICC decisions, offset claims and PDVSA’s contention that net payments could be lower after deductions — for example PDVSA said a final payment might be closer to $1 billion after accounting for earlier awards and alleged debts [3] [8] [5].
4. Other awarded sums, tribunals and the messy tally
Beyond the headline ICSID rulings, ConocoPhillips also secured roughly $2 billion in an ICC action against PDVSA in 2018, and arbitration outcomes differ by forum, valuation date, and the specific contractual relationships at issue — meaning the “how much owed” figure depends on which tribunal’s award is counted and whether interest or offsets are included [9] [4] [7].
5. Enforcement realities, Venezuela’s position, and the limits of the dollar totals
Winning an arbitration award is not the same as collecting cash: reporting repeatedly stresses Venezuela’s resistance to payment, potential challenges to enforcement, and PDVSA’s own financial strains that complicate collection of multi‑billion judgments [4]; Venezuela and its legal advisers have argued the measures were lawful under domestic sovereign prerogatives and point to valuation disputes and offsets as grounds to contest or reduce awards [10].
6. Bottom line: who and roughly how much
The clearest, widely reported outcomes are: ConocoPhillips — roughly $8.7 billion from an ICSID tribunal plus other awards bringing combined claims into the roughly $10+ billion range (depending on which rulings are aggregated) [2] [4]; ExxonMobil — an ICSID award around $1.6 billion alongside earlier ICC-related awards and offset disputes that produced lower net payment expectations [3] [5]. Other major firms were affected by the 2007 nationalizations but settled or accepted mixed‑company terms and did not end up with large unpaid arbitration awards of the same profile [6]. Reporting does not provide a single, consolidated ledger of every claim, interest accrual, offset or partial payment, so any summed “owed” total depends on which tribunal awards and subsequent adjustments one elects to include [4] [8].