Chavez dials back threat to halt oil

President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela was not preparing to cut off oil shipments to the United States.

The socialist leader rattled oil markets a week earlier when he threatened to halt shipments to the United States in retaliation for Exxon Mobil Corp.’s success in convincing courts in the U.S. and Europe to freeze Venezuelan assets.

“We don’t have plans to stop sending oil to the United States,” Chavez said during a visit to heavy-oil projects in the petroleum-rich Orinoco River basin that were nationalized last year.

But he added that Venezuela could cut off supplies to the United States if Washington “attacks Venezuela or tries to harm us.”