January 3, 2012. Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the state oil company, said it was given 60 days to pay Exxon Mobil Corp. about $255 million in cash to settle an arbitration claim over assets seized by Hugo Chavez in 2007. The cash payment will settle a $907 million ruling by the New York-based International Chamber of Commerce, adding to $191 million of Exxon debt that the Venezuelan company will cancel and $300 million from frozen funds in a New York account. The ICC deducted $160 million in counterclaims from the ruling provided the payment is made in 60 days, PDVSA said. Exxon, the world's largest oil company by market value, originally sought to freeze $12 billion of PDVSA assets as compensation for the nationalization of the Cerro Negro heavy- crude project in the Orinoco belt. The freeze was overturned by a U.K. court in March 2009, leading Exxon to reduce its arbitration claim to $7 billion in 2010. The ICC handed Exxon the ruling for a net $746.9 million payment.