Can Exxon Corner Chavez?

At least for now, Exxon appears to have convinced the courts that it has a strong chance of prevailing in the international arbitration it has lodged against PDVSA and that Venezuela may try to evade any financial payments.

"It's not that often that you can show you can win on the merits or that the defendant will remove the assets" from states where they can be seized, said William Knull, a partner at Mayer Brown in Houston and expert in international arbitration.

"The public statements of Venezuela are exhibit A," he added, referring to Chavez's sharp criticism of the oil majors and the U.S. government.

But Chavez, who has regularly railed against the United States and the oil companies that were developing the OPEC state's vast heavy oil reserves, has never been one to back down from a confrontation.

On Thursday, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez accused Exxon of using "legal terrorism" in the dispute and said PDVSA would win reversals of the court orders.

Such acrimony could affect the arbitration, and at least one expert doubted that Exxon would benefit from the move in arbitration, a process that regularly runs several years before resolutions are issued.

"If anything, it could slow down the arbitration," said Rodman Bundy, a partner at law firm Eversheds LLP in Paris.

At minimum, Exxon's victories winning the injunctions have been an embarrassment for Chavez, Sabino said, and show that in an increasingly global economy, companies that believe they have been wronged have legal recourse.

"It's a wake-up call to Chavez," said Sabino. "If he wants to play tin-pot dictator, this is the way to deal with him."

While Exxon may prevail in the case, the escalating dispute could damage the company's chances of getting future development deals in the country that holds the world's seventh largest proved reserves of oil, even as Exxon struggles to get access to new fields.