Venezuelan Oil Company Not Immune From Suit Over Taken Property

A Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company lost its bid to toss an Oklahoma oil drilling company’s federal district court lawsuit alleging its property was illegally taken under international law.

Tulsa, Okla.-based Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Co. met all of the factors necessary to show that expropriation exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act applies and the Venezuelan company isn’t immune, Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said Sept. 20.

The issue was still at play after more than a decade of litigation that followed the Venezuelan government ...