We're reading Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Colls and learning a lot about one of the world's most powerful corporations.
ExxonMobil is so powerful, in fact, that it hoodwinked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez by pulling off one of the largest asset seizures ever attempted by an American oil company.
It all started in 1997 when Exxon signed a contract with Venezuela's state-run oil giant P.D.V.S.A. to extract and process heavy oil from a part of the Orinoco River Basin called Cerro Negro.
