Venezuela refinances $1.4 bln Sincor project debt

CARACAS, March 20 (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA on Thursday said it has refinanced $1.4 billion in debt for the Sincor heavy oil project after the government of leftist President Hugo Chavez took it over in a 2007 nationalization drive.

PDVSA took a 60 percent stake in Sincor, now known as Petro Cedeno, after partners Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and StatoilHydro (STL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) lowered their holdings in the project, which required refinancing the upstanding debt.

The announcement comes two days after a London court lifted a $12 billion asset freeze won by Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) as part of a dispute over the takeover of the Cerro Negro project it once ran.

PDVSA had said the asset freeze, won in January, had slowed the process of refinancing upstanding debt.

Venezuela last year took over four multi-billion dollar heavy crude upgrading projects operating in the Orinoco basin that can produce around 600,000 barrels per day of oil.

Exxon and ConocoPhillips left the OPEC nation after failing to reach an agreement in the takeover, and both are taking Venezuela to international arbitration over the issue. (Reporting by Brian Ellsworth)