China and Venezuela sign oil agreements

[Minstrel Boy]

China and Venezuela sign oil agreements

www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-30

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez and Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong signed several agreements Saturday concerning oil, agriculture and technology, officials said. Chavez has sought to forge new trade and political ties with foreign powers including China and Russia.

"Each (agreement) will turn into a thousand things," Chavez said after the signing ceremony at the presidential palace.

...

During their meeting, Chavez and Zeng signed a total of 19 agreements after discussing technological cooperation, as well as mining, oil and gas projects, according to a statement issued by Venezuela information ministry.

...

The deals also involved the construction of a railroad in eastern Venezuela, the purchase of a satellite to improve telecommunications in the South American country, and the purchase of radars to tighten security along its border with Colombia.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/30/content_2526132.htm

[McKenzie]

1. this could be an important development

There is evidence that the US tried to destabilise the Chavez government, mainly because of it's markedly socialist complexion. The sale of oil by barter, which cuts the dollar out, is another reason. Most of us know why there is a strong desire to keep dollar hegemony by requiring oil to be bought and sold in dollars.

This is very interesting given the r/w's antipathy towards Chavez; very interesting because Venezuela has previously traded with Latin American countries and Cuba in the main, none of whom have the muscle to stand up to the US. With China involved in trade agreements Chavez now has the support of a major power.

Worth watching this one to see how it develops.

[4MoreYearsOfHell]

2. What a shame

you'd think that we would be the ones signing a cooperation deal with one of our neighbors...

Seems to me like Venezuela is looking out for the little guy and our admin is too entwined with the big boys to work with Hugo...

Sadly, I'm not sure it would have been any diffferent under Kerry, based on comments that he made during the campaign...

[shadowknows69]

3. don't we get like 14% of our oil from venezuela?

that's no small piece of the pie at the end of the age of oil. we want that oil and china just laid claim to it.

[0007]

8. Yes, and now Venezuela can become more independent with their dealing

with the U.S. and the U.S. demands.

[leesa]

11. We tried to overthrow him twice, we tried to assasinate him...I think it's

a bit too late to work with him.

[Wright Patman]

4. China is behaving like a rational

mercantilist power. The Chinese have hundreds of billions of excess dollars and a need for energy. Thus, they are locking up future energy needs in a nonviolent manner, as all countries with big bucks ought to prefer to do.

Of course, mercantilism has been "discredited" by the resounding success of one-way "free trade" as practiced by America and Britain since World War II, which is why neither country has any problems anymore. We have reached economic nirvana. < /sarcasm>

The Anglo-American model will be employed by the rest of the world--at gunpoint, if necessary. That is the official foreign policy of 10 Downing Street, the White House, the City of London and, of course, Wall Street. And repeat after me: We are the "good guys."

The U.S. does not have big bucks anymore. We only have big debts. So we are using the only thing we have left with which to "reason" with the rest of the world--brute force. Since the "conventional" application of such force is not working out too well, guess what happens next

We will become what we continually fearmonger about--practitioners of the use of weapons of mass destruction, beginning with "tactical" nuclear weaponry, which may have already been used, according to some sources. The "tactic" will degenerate into a "strategy."

My prediction: large areas of the world will lie in smoking nuclear ruins and rubble within 10 years.

Who's going to tell the kids (assuming there are any left) they had to call off Christmas when there is no more "China-Mart?"

[fedsron2us]

6. I agree, the Anglo American world order is in its last days

but it is not going to be replaced by the globalised capitalist utopia that certain panglossian dreamers in the corporate media seem to envisage. Far more likely is that the world is going to coalesce back into competing political and economic power blocks. At best this is likely to lead to a new Cold war at worse we are all going to be turned into radioactive toast. Such dangerous times require leadership of the highest quality. Unfortunately, in the west our political system has ensured that the greedy, the crooked, the incompetent and the insane occupy the positions of power. We are all doomed.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. assume this:

our leaders are not idiots, they are simply evil.

They have looked at the future and seen that the choice is between international cooperation to develop a sustainable world economy and a mass die-off as free-trade capitalism runs headlong into the contradiction between its requirement for continuous growth and the finite and inadequate energy supplies to feed that growth.

They have chosen the path of evil. For a variety of reasons, all of them irrational and morally depraved, they will cling to short term power, pursue dreams of messianic apocalypse and megalomaniacal world domination, and plunge the world into a nightmare scenario where 2/3 of the people on this planet will die.

And meanwhile we cannot accept that the situation is as bad as it obviously is. What does this mean for our children? How can this be?

What other explanation is there?

The Oil Wars began with Bush I and Gulf Farce I. We are now 14 years into the conflict, and it has really just gotten started.

[Carl Brennan]

12. Interesting, China is acting in its own "national" interests

where as the Bush romp and stomp MO is serving, and not very well at that, the interests of the BFEE at the very costly expense of US national interest.


Of course if Bush had any interest in what is good for the nation he would have put more effort into developing alternative energy.

The BFEE is going to lose this game, but will probably be able to spin it as if the won.

What happens when the BFEE doesn't bring home the bacon?

[MadisonProgressive]

5. I'm afraid Venezuela just sealed their fate with BushCo

Let the bombing begin...:puke:

[Neshanic]

7. "We buy you...Bush no like you guys, we future now."

[many a good man]

10. Petrodollar Recycling is Linchpin of Global Order

In 1973 the we struck a deal permitting exporting nations to nationalize their oil fields. This was financed by doubling the price of oil. The US made a solemn oath to the Saudi royal family that it always would protect it IF they re-invested the billions in profits in the US stock market and made sure oil was always priced in $$$ on the world markets.

When this deal finally falls through all bets are off.


FYI:

SOURCES OF US OIL IMPORTS
2003

Canada 17%
Saudi Arabia 14.5%
Mexico 13%
Venezuela 11%
Nigeria 7%
Iraq 4%



2004 UPDATE: US Imports total about 61% of consumption: 13.12 million barrels per day in July 2004, out of total consumption of 21.4 million barrels per day.

[porkrind]

13. Wow! Excellent graphic. Thanks.