Venezuela seizes US-owned oil rigs in dispute over unpaid bills
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Venezuela is quietly seizing control of two oil rigs owned by a unit of Houston-based Superior Energy Services after the company shut them down because the state oil monopoly was months behind on payments.
The seizure started Thursday after a judge in the state of Anzoategui entered a Superior depot and ordered the company to hand over the rigs to an affiliate of state-owned PDVSA. Four members of the local police and national guard are overseeing the equipment's removal.
PDVSA in a court document obtained by The Associated Press calls the expropriation essential to Venezuela's development.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Late President Hugo Chavez liked to grandstand on national television ordering troops to seize everything from supermarkets to foreign-owned oil companies. However his successor Nicolas Maduro has avoided expropriations six months into his rule.