Caracas , Venezuela ( CNN ) -- When the World Bank 's arbitration body weighs in on a dispute between Venezuela and ExxonMobil , President Hugo Chavez says he wo n't respect the decision . The oil giant and officials from the South American nation have been feuding since 2007 , when Chavez 's government nationalized a joint project in the country 's crude-rich Orinoco belt . A case before the World Bank 's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ( ICSID ) is pending . `` I will say it once . We will not recognize any decisions of the ICSID . We will not recognize them , '' Chavez said on state television Sunday . A hearing in the ICSID case is scheduled for the first quarter of 2012 , according to a summary of the dispute published in an Exxon financial report . Last week Venezuela 's state oil company PdVSA said it would pay ExxonMobil $ 255 million after the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce ruled that Venezuela owes ExxonMobil $ 907 million . Past debts and asset seizures make up the difference , officials from PdVSA said in a statement . Chavez criticized ExxonMobil , which has asked for billions of dollars in compensation , for continuing with the case . `` Since they could n't do it in Paris , now they are going to the ICSID in the United States , '' he said . ExxonMobil affiliates filed the ICSID arbitration case against Venezuela in September 2007 over the Cerro Negro Project , which was a joint venture until the Venezuelan government took over ExxonMobil 's 42 % interest in June of that year . ExxonMobil has argued that PdVSA breached obligations under an investment treaty . Venezuela argued that taking over the project and others in Orinoco belt was its sovereign right . Chavez , who has nationalized numerous industries and land holdings during his 13-year tenure , said Sunday that he supported Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa 's proposal to create a new arbitration body `` where we can settle whatever differences there are between governments and companies in Latin America . '' Venezuela -- along with allies Bolivia and Nicaragua -- has said in the past that it would withdraw from the convention that created the ICSID , arguing that the international body gives transnational companies a gateway to violate national sovereignty . Chavez repeated those concerns Sunday , saying the arbitration panel was being used to threaten his country . `` They are trying to achieve the impossible , that we pay them what we are never going to pay , '' he said . World Bank directors devised the international arbitration panel in 1965 . More than 140 countries are members , according to a statement on the ICSID website , which describes the body as an `` autonomous international institution . '' CNN '' s Catherine E. Shoichet and journalist Osmary Hernandez contributed to this report .
Venezuela and ExxonMobil are feuding over the This month nationalization of a project . A case is pending before a Exxon dispute arbitration body . President Hugo Chavez Venezuela `` will not recognize any decisions '' of the panel . 2007 a Venezuela -based body said Venezuela owes World Bank $ 907 million .