February 8, 2008

ClientBeijing Alert New York Washington, DC

Please feel free to discuss Courts Grant ExxonMobil Freeze any aspect of this Client Alert with your regular Milbank contacts or with on Venezuela Assets any partner whose name and contact information ExxonMobil has arbitration proceeding win the arbitration. are to follow. secured court orders to before the International The move by ExxonMobil freeze more than $12 billion Chamber of Commerce. is the boldest challenge yet In addition, if you would in worldwide assets of ExxonMobil’s efforts are by an international oil like copies of our other Venezuela’s state-owned oil designed to ensure that major against any of the Client Alerts please visit company, as it prepares to sufficient PDVSA assets governments around the our website at http://www. dispute the nationalization will be available to satisfy world that have moved to milbank.com and choosing of a multibillion dollar oil any judgment, should it increase their holds on the “Client Alerts & project. prevail in the arbitrations. natural resources, as energy Newsletters” link under ExxonMobil’s move ExxonMobil and commodity prices “Newsroom / Events”. limits Petroleos de announced on February 7, have soared. ExxonMobil Venezuela SA’s ability to 2008 that it has received said in court filings that This Client Alert is a source maneuver as it fends off court orders in Britain, the recent estimates have of general information for challenges from major Netherlands and the placed PDVSA’s global clients and friends of western oil companies - Netherlands Antilles asset value - including its Milbank. Its content including ConocoPhilipps - freezing assets. The operations in Venezuela - should not be construed as over President Hugo freezing injunction issued at over $62 billion. legal advice, and readers Chavez’s 2007 decision to by the U.K. court requires Although the freeze should not act upon the nationalize four heavy oil PDVSA to keep assets of orders are subject to information in this Client projects in the Orinoco at least US$12 billion in further review by the Alert without consulting Basin, one of the richest England. The injunction courts, ExxonMobil’s counsel. © 2008, Milbank, oil deposits in the world. also requires PDVSA to move may signal available Tweed, Hadley & McCloy ExxonMobil and disclose the value and response options to the LLP. All rights reserved. ConocoPhilipps opted to location of all worldwide trend of resource-rich Attorney Advertising, prior walk away from the assets to ExxonMobil. countries flexing their results do not guarantee a projects rather than agree ExxonMobil also muscle over oil companies. similar outcome. to new contracts with obtained a court order Milbank Tweed has PDVSA. Both have from the United States significant expertise in instituted arbitration District Court for the investor-state dispute proceedings with the World Southern District of New resolution in general and Bank’s International Centre York in December 2007, has extensive Venezuelan for Settlement of freezing more than $300 experience. We are industry Investment Disputes, million belonging to leaders in energy and oil seeking compensation. PDVSA Cerro Negro, transactions and ExxonMobil also instituted similarly seeking to guarantee restructurings. in January 2008 an payment should ExxonMobil

Please feel free to discuss any aspect of this Client Alert with your regular Milbank contacts or with any partners whose names and contact information are provided below.

Beijing Units 05-06, 15th Floor, Tower 2 China Central Place, 79 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District 100025, China +86-10-5969-2700 Edward Sun Global Securities +86-10-5123-5120 [email protected] Frankfurt Taunusanlage 15 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany +49-69-71914-3400 Hong Kong 3007 Alexandra House, 18 Chater Road Central, Hong Kong +852-2971-4888 Anthony Root Global Securities +852-2971-4842 [email protected]

London 10 Gresham Street London EC2V 7JD, England +44-20-7615-3000 Phillip Fletcher Global Project Finance +44-20-7615-3002 [email protected] David Perkins Litigation and Arbitration +44-20-7615-3003 [email protected] Los Angeles 601 South Figueroa Street Los Angeles, CA 90017 +1-213-892-4000 Ed Feo Global Project Finance +213-892-4417 [email protected] David Lamb Global Corporate +213-892-4434 [email protected] Allan Marks Global Project Finance +213-892-4376 [email protected]

Munich Maximilianstrasse 15 (Maximilianhoefe) 80539 Munich, Germany +49-89-25559-3600 Norbert Rieger Global Corporate +49-89-25559-3620 [email protected] New York One Chase Manhattan Plaza New York, NY 10005 +1-212-530-5000 Dan Bartfeld Global Project Finance +1-212-530-5185 [email protected] Richard Brach Global Project Finance +1-212-530-5350 [email protected] Eric Silverman Global Project Finance +1-212-530-5648 [email protected] Singapore 30 Raffles Place, #14-00 Chevron House Singapore 048622 +65-6428-2400 David Zemans Global Project Finance +65-6428-2555 [email protected] Tokyo 21F Midtown Tower, 9-7-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku Tokyo 107-6221 Japan +813-5410-2801 Darrel Holstein Global Corporate +813-3504-2167 [email protected] David Zemans Global Project Finance +813-3504-2160 [email protected]

Washington, DC International Square Building, 1850 K Street Washington, DC 20006 +1-202-835-7500 Jonathan Maizel Global Project Finance +202-835-7565 [email protected] Michael Nolan Litigation and Arbitration +202-835-7524 [email protected]