Court orders halt to Venezuela oil strike

Venezuela's Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt to an oil industry strike while it considers the legality of the work stoppage…

Venezuela's Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt to an oil industry strike while it considers the legality of the work stoppage, which entered its 18th day today.

A general strike by organised labour and business to oust President Hugo Chavez has stopped oil exports from Venezuela a key supplier to the United States and sent global prices above $30 a barrel.

The Supreme Court said it was considering a motion filed by an executive with the state-owned oil monopoly asking the justices to declare the strike illegal.

The court said it will hear arguments on the motion within four days. In the meantime, it ordered striking oil employees and executives to resume work.

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There was no immediate reaction from dissident executives at the oil company, which employs 40,000 people. But a spokesman for striking workers, Alfredo Gomez, told Dow Jones Newswires they will ignore the court order.

"It's not safe for us to return to work and the constitution allows us to protest," Gomez said. Leaders of the general strike have cited a clause in Venezuela's constitution allowing citizens not to recognize a government they consider undemocratic.

Oil production was down to 370,000 barrels per day compared to 3 million barrels before the strike. Some oil executives fired by Chavez claim production is just 200,000 barrels per day.

Venezuelan and foreign tankers are idle, refineries are closed or operating at minimum levels and crews and dock workers are refusing to handle oil and non-oil cargos.

The government is still trying to unload the tanker Pilin Leon named after a former Miss World which anchored off the western city of Maracaibo in protest. The ship carries 280,000 barrels of gasoline, roughly a day's supply for the nation.

Chavez, who vows to stay in office, has branded striking oil workers as traitors sabotaging Venezuela's oil-based economy and issued a decree allowing the temporary seizure of private vehicles to ensure deliveries of food and gas.

"We must always be alert, ready to defend our revolution," Chavez told thousands of supporters late Wednesday at a Caracas arena. He said the strikers "have aligned themselves with treason."