Exxon, Conoco reject Venezuela projects

Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips rejected a deal Monday to stay in multibillion-dollar projects that Venezuela is nationalizing, increasing the chances that two of the world’s top oil companies will leave the OPEC nation, two sources close to the talks said.

Four other companies -- Chevron Corp., Norway’s Statoil, Britain’s BP and France’s Total -- plan to sign an accord that will keep them in the massive Orinoco oil reserve projects, a government official said.

The sources -- one from the oil industry and the other from the government -- asked not to be named because the state oil company PDVSA planned to announce the negotiations’ results.

They also noted negotiations with Exxon and ConocoPhillips could be revived at the eleventh hour.

But late Monday, a person close to ConocoPhillips said the company had decided to leave Venezuela entirely, walking out on its stakes in two Orinoco projects as well as its interest in the Corocoro field in the Gulf of Paria. The source said the dispute probably would head to arbitration.

PDVSA said it would sign the deals in a ceremony, which it originally announced for Monday but later postponed until today.

President Hugo Chavez decreed today as a deadline for the majors to accept terms for the government to take a majority stake in four heavy-crude upgrading projects valued at more than $30 billion.