State Dept Presses Venezuela To Pay For Rigs Owned By US Cos

A U.S. State Department spokesman called on Venezuela's government Thursday to compensate U.S.-based drilling companies if it decides to nationalize rigs owned by those companies.

The spokesman made the comments after media reports said Venezuela planned to take over 11 rigs owned by Oklahoma-based Helmerich & Payne Inc. (HP).

"We would just call on them to--if they did make such a move--to compensate the owners of those wells," said State Dept. spokesman Mark Toner during a press briefing Thursday.

Helmerich & Payne said Thursday the company had not yet received notification from the Venezuelan government regarding the rigs, but chief executive Hans Helmerich said, "We are surprised by yesterday's announcement only because we have been in ongoing efforts in a good faith attempt to accommodate a win-win resolution, including a willingness to sell rigs."

Debate over the rigs was sparked by a disagreement over $43 million in payments that H&P says it did not receive from Venezuela's national oil company for work it performed.

Following the disagreement, H&P says it attempted to resolve the disagreement over the payments and also offered to sell the rigs to the government.

"We stated repeatedly we wanted to return to work, just not for free," Helmerich said.

-By Tennille Tracy, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619; tennille.tracy@dowjones.com

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