Known as investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS, the system lets foreign investors sue governments before panels of arbitrators, usually corporate lawyers. At the time, the Venezuelan government had enacted a law requiring the state to take majority ownership in oil projects. ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil filed claims seeking $30.3 billion and $14.7 billion, respectively. In ExxonMobil’s case, Venezuela filed a motion in December arguing for more time to pay the $985 million it was deemed to owe. Already, the ISDS claims effectively transfer some risk to Venezuelan taxpayers, St. Louis said.
