WASHINGTON – The World Bank’s arbitration body has ordered Venezuela to pay $455 million to U.S.-based packaging product manufacturer Owens-Illinois Inc.’s Dutch subsidiary for the 2010 unlawful expropriation of its majority interest in two glass-bottle plants, the parent company said.

The decision was handed down by a tribunal constituted under the auspices of the Washington-based International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, O-I said in a news release Thursday.

The subsidiary, OI European Group B.V., brought the case before the ICSID in 2011.

“If Venezuela fails to meet its obligations, OIEG will seek to enforce the award against Venezuela’s assets around the world or find alternative measures of redress,” O-I said.

The ICSID award includes $372 million in compensation plus interest.

“As the tribunal found, Venezuela expropriated very valuable assets, which were the result of more than half a century of hard work and commitment by O-I employees and for which the country now has to compensate O-I,” said Al Stroucken, the company’s chairman and CEO.

“We hope that the plants continue to benefit our former employees and the Venezuelan people.”

The expropriation occurred in October 2010 under late President Hugo Chavez, who accused the company of polluting the environment and exploiting its workers.

After it was nationalized, the company was renamed Venezolana de Vidrio.

The two plants, located in the cities of Los Guayos and Valera in northwestern Venezuela, had been in operation for more than 50 years and employed more than 1,000 workers at the time of the expropriation.

Venezuela, which has more than a score of arbitration cases pending at the ICSID, withdrew from that body’s convention on Jan. 24, 2012, but it still must comply with rulings on cases that were brought prior to that date.

O-I, the world’s largest glass container manufacturer, employs approximately 21,100 people at 75 plants in 21 countries.

In the past 6 months, Venezuela has been ordered to pay over $3 billion for a rash of expropriations by Venezuela's former leader Hugo Chavez, including $1.6 billion to ExxonMobil, $750 million to Gold Reserve, $35 million to Swiss/Chilean airport operator Flughafen .

After a rash of expropriations and nationalizations by Chavez, Venezuela has 25 cases pending against it at ICSID -- the most of any nation in the world. Faced with the cases, Chavez withdrew Venezuela from ICSID jurisdiction in 2012, but pending cases and new cases brought under bilateral investment treaties and contracts continue to give ICSID jurisdiction to settle the arbitrations.

Other companies with pending ICSID arbitrations against Venezuela include mining and smelting companies Anglo American, Rusoro Mining Ltd., Crystallex International Corporation, Highbury International and Tenaris SA; food industry companies Gruma, Polar, Longreef, and Vestey; and oil industry companies Williams Cos. Inc., Koch Industries Inc., and ConocoPhillips.

Venezuela filed to Revise and Annul the $1.6 billion ExxonMobil judgment in February, essential staying the judgment so that Venezuela doesn't have to pay it unless the Tribunal rules again that they do.

In October, an ICSID arbitration panel had awarded ExxonMobil $1.6 billion in its case against Venezuela for the 2007 expropriation of Exxon's investments in the Orinoco oil region.

The month before, in September, an ICSID panel awarded Gold Reserve Inc. $740.3 million for Venezuela's expropriation of Gold Reserves mining operations in the country. Venezuela is currently challenging Gold Reserve who is trying to begin enforcement of the award.

ICSID is an autonomous international institution established in 1965 under the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (the ICSID or the Washington Convention) with over one hundred and forty member States. The primary purpose of ICSID is to provide facilities for conciliation and arbitration of international investment disputes. ICSID judgements are automatically enforceable in any member state.