Region: Venezuela

A US appeals court has said it lacks jurisdiction to intervene in Canadian mining company Crystallex’s efforts to execute a US$1.4 billion ICSID award against Venezuela’s largest foreign asset as the lower court has yet to make a final decision.

19 January 2022

The French Court of Cassation has reinstated a jurisdictional award in favour of two Spanish-Venezuelan nationals in a dispute with Venezuela, finding the underlying treaty didn’t require them to hold Spanish nationality at the time they made their investments.

01 December 2021

An UNCITRAL panel is in place to hear an insurer’s US$700 million investment treaty claim against Venezuela after the state succeeded in disqualifying the claimant’s original pick as arbitrator.

18 November 2021

Venezuela has defeated a US$600 million investment treaty claim brought by US sanitary products group Kimberly-Clark over the seizure of a factory during a national toilet paper shortage – with a tribunal finding the state had not consented to arbitrate under ICSID’s additional facility rules.

09 November 2021

A Dutch appeal court has refused to recognise an ICDR emergency award blocking Curaçao’s state-run refining company from targeting assets owned by Venezuela’s national oil and gas company PDVSA.

07 October 2021

An ICSID committee has lifted a stay of enforcement of a US$9 billion award in favour of ConocoPhillips while it considers Venezuela’s bid to annul the award.

05 October 2021

The US government has once again refused to allow Crystallex to sell off Venezuelan state-owned assets to satisfy an ICSID award, despite the Canadian mining company’s warning that it may pursue a NAFTA claim against the United States as a result.

24 September 2021

Canadian arbitrator Stephen Drymer has resigned from an ICSID tribunal hearing a US insurer’s claim against Venezuela after the state successfully challenged his appointment in a parallel UNCITRAL case.

23 September 2021

LINK TO AWARD ADDED: Air Canada has secured a US$26 million ICSID additional facility award against Venezuela over the state’s failure to convert its bolivar-denominated earnings to US dollars so that they could be repatriated.

14 September 2021

A US court has summarily enforced a US$444 million award in favour of subsidiaries of Koch Industries against Venezuela, as the state awaits a decision on its bid to annul the award at ICSID.

19 August 2021