The expropriation process of some oil service companies has not moved forward. The properties and assets of 74 service companies were seized by the Venezuelan government and are controlled by the state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) since May 2009, as published in the Official Gazette, but the expropriation process has not started formally.

Experts say that to move forward with the process, the government should publish the decrees of public utility that have been recently issued with regard to companies in other sectors of the economy.

In the nationalization of the former oil operational agreements involving oilfields and strategic partnerships in the Orinoco oil belt, the expropriation process advanced with the issuance of the decrees.

Oil industry sources said that on Tuesday Venezuela's Oil Chamber will discuss Pdvsa's payments which have been delayed for more than nine months.

The oil services company TideWater Inc., which has been hit by the delay in the payment of compensation, announced in a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it filed with the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (Icsid) an arbitration proceeding against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela regarding compensation for its seized barges and tow boats, which the firm operated in Lake Maracaibo and in Paria (northeastern Venezuela).

Pdvsa announced in 2009 that it would negotiate compensation, based on the law that reserves to the Venezuelan state-run oil industry the goods and services of hydrocarbon primary operations.

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas