Chevron Told to Leave Chad

Chevron Corp. said Tuesday that it was told by Chad to leave the oil-rich African country over a tax dispute.

The San Ramon, Calif.-based company received the demand in a letter Monday as part of a dispute in which Chad President Idriss Deby told Chevron and Malaysia-based Petronas last weekend that they owed $450 million in taxes.

Chevron asserts that it is “in full compliance with all our tax obligations,� spokesman Donald Campbell said Tuesday. Campbell declined to comment further.

Rising oil prices have caused oil-producing countries around the world to pressure foreign companies for a greater share of profits.

Venezuela, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, said Tuesday that it would seek a majority stake in the production units of four joint oil ventures as it expands its control over the country’s energy industry.

Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, holds a 25% stake in the $3.5-billion Chad-Cameroon project, which carries oil from Chad on a 658-mile pipeline through Cameroon for export. Chevron’s production stake in the consortium is 37,000 barrels a day. Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, operates the project with a 40% stake. Petronas holds 35%.

Chevron and Petronas have several days to leave the country, Agence-France Presse reported. Exxon Mobil hasn’t been asked to leave Chad, spokeswoman Susan Reeves said.