[NYTr] Nica Settles w/Exxon - to Rent Disputed Oil Storage Tanks

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via International Herald Tribune - Dec 15, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/15/news/Nicaragua-ExxonMobile.php


Nica to rent disputed tanks of ExxonMobil subsidiary for Venezuela oil 

The Associated Press

MANAGUA, Nicaragua: The Nicaraguan government has agreed to rent -- and
later probably buy -- a fuel tank facility owned by an ExxonMobile
subsidiary that is needed to store Venezuelan oil, ending a bitter
dispute.

Under the agreement signed late Friday, President Daniel Ortega's
leftist government will rent tanks at the Pacific coast port of Puerto
Corinto from Esso Standard Oil until Dec. 31 to store oil sold to
Nicaragua on preferential terms by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The subsidiary of Texas-based ExxonMobile Corp. said it will continue
operating its refinery, the only one in Nicaragua. The company
reportedly stands to profit from refining the Venezuelan crude.

"The next step will be to sign the sale agreement for these facilities"
with Nicaragua's state-run oil company Petronic, said Joaquin
Magalhaes, general manager for Esso Standard.

"After that, we will be working on that last stage of the agreement,
for supplying crude (to the refinery), which we are really trying to
speed up ... in the interests of Nicaragua and also in our own
interest," said Magalhaes, who signed the agreement.

The dispute began after Nicaragua's government and Esso Standard failed
to reach a deal on use of the tanks. At one point, the government
placed a lien on the company's assets, arguing it owed back taxes.

The two sides reached a temporary agreement for oil storage in
September, and the lien on the tanks was lifted. It was unclear whether
the tax issues had been resolved or would be factored into a sale price
should the tanks be sold.

Ortega hinted earlier this month that he was considering nationalizing
the country's oil import industry.

Ortega imposed state controls on Nicaragua's economy during his first
turn as president in the 1980s, when he battled U.S.-backed Contra
rebels.

Since his return to office in January, he has maintained relations with
the U.S. and promised to protect private property and foreign
investment, while also cozying up to Chavez, one of the United States'
most outspoken critics.