Lawyer Alejandro Terán Martínez filed a brief before Judge Carl Nichols requesting an “emergency hearing” to raise arguments in relation to the lawsuit by the oil company ConocoPhillis against the Venezuelan state.
Terán Martínez sent the text of the communication to the newsroom, which in turn sent it to the Courts of the District of Columbia, where three days ago a ruling was issued granting ConocoPhillis disposition of up to 8.7 million dollars of Venezuelan assets. The oil company sued Venezuela since 2005 because it did not accept that the government adjust the rules of the contract with PDVSA by increasing taxes from 16% to 34% and royalties from 1% to 16%, Terán Martínez recalled.
For this oil analyst, the government of President Nicolás Maduro had no chance to defend itself in that lawsuit and the representatives “of what they call the interim, did not appear at the hearing and let ConocoPhillips win the trial.”
That is the point that Terán Martínez will raise before Judge Carl Nichols, to grant him the emergency hearing in file 19CV-683. He clarified that such request is made as a Venezuelan citizen and not as director of La Association of Latin American Oil, Gas and Industry Entrepreneurs Energy headquartered in Texas, United States.
“Our country did not have the opportunity to establish an adequate defense… The legitimate government of Venezuela was not allowed to execute due process and duly defend the country’s oil interests,” says Terán Martínez in the letter he sent to Judge Nichols.
“A collapse of the Venezuelan oil industry would cause great damage to the US energy strategy, especially in the price of gas stations belonging to the intervened company Citgo,” Terán Martínez said in the communication. The oil expert said in an interview for Last Newsthat the money to hypothetically cancel the 8.7 million dollars to ConocoPhillips, would come from the cash flow of Citgo, whose administration is currently in the hands “of a deputy who claims to be President of Venezuela.”
From the Court of the District of Columbia, Terán Martínez received an email specifying the form that he must fill out to continue with the emergency hearing request procedure.
