Venezuela just can't seem to catch a break. First came ConocoPhillips' arbitration victory related to the 2007 nationalization of its Venezuelan assets (EIF Sep. 11'13). Then came the public airing of Malaysian Petronas' exit from the Carobobo-1 heavy oil project (p3). Next was news that US-listed Harvest Natural Resources is in exclusive negotiations with Argentina's Pluspetrol for a deal that would see Harvest leave its only producing asset, allowing it to escape years of headaches related to unpaid dividends and underfunding by state PDV. Granted, Harvest's planned exit comes as no surprise, as the firm agreed the sale of its Venezuelan assets — a 32% stake in the Petrodelta JV alongside PDV that spans six oil fields comprising 9.9 billion barrels of gross oil in place — to Indonesia's Pertamina last June, only to see it fall apart in February. But the headline doesn't read well for Venezuela: Harvest is apparently so desperate to exit, it is willing to negotiate a deal offering it roughly half the proceeds rather than hold out for PDV to make good on its financial obligations.
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