Venezuela Considers Sale of U.S. Refineries

[truthpusher]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/02/business/worldbusiness/02citgo.html?oref=login

Venezuela Considers Sale of U.S. Refineries
By SIMON ROMERO

Published: February 2, 2005

HOUSTON, Feb. 1 - President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela signaled on Tuesday that his government was interested in selling its American oil-refining operations, in the latest illustration of an energy strategy that has raised doubt whether Venezuela would continue as a reliable source of oil for the United States.

(snip)

Mr. Chávez's comments came after moves in recent weeks by Petróleos de Venezuela that have generated tension in energy markets. Venezuela reached an agreement over the weekend to have a team of Iranian advisers train its technicians on how to increase oil exports to China and other Asian markets.

"We are subsidizing Mr. Bush," Mr. Chávez said in Buenos Aires in reference to Citgo's operations in the United States and Venezuela's tense relationship with Washington, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

(snip)

"All he'll be doing is hurting Venezuela," Bill Greehey, the chief executive of the Valero Energy Corporation, a refinery operator in San Antonio. Mr. Greehey, who said his company would be interested in buying Citgo's assets, said it would be easy to refit them to process crude from countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq or Kuwait. Venezuela currently accounts for about 15 percent of American oil imports.

more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/02/business/worldbusiness/02citgo.html?oref=login

[Mystified]

1. I don't think it matters either way

If China and other Asian countries look to Venezuala for their oil rather than their current suppliers the U.S. can simply buy its oil from producers that previously dealt with China. However, if this oil is IN ADDITION TO China's current providers it could be another matter entirely.

[mitchtv]

3. I think 'in addition' is the operative phrase

Soon India will be consuming much more, also.

[bemildred]

2. Hugo seems to be raising the stakes. nt

[mitchtv]

5. Divesting US properties; Hmmmm...

leaving the sinking ship before the shit hits the fan; if I may mix metaphors.

[MoonRiver]

29. You may.

After all, shit happens, on sea and on land. :P

[glitch]

4. For personal reasons, I hope Venezuela continues to supply the U.S.

since I am boycotting everyone else. But if they have to cut us off, I'll understand.

[leesa]

10. They have to, but it's good you only buy Venezuelan gas. I haven't

any available locally.

[glitch]

27. We're lucky here in Seattle - Citgo is available in quite a few places. nt

[shadowknows69]

6. I hope he has good security

he's got a target the size of an oil tank on his back I'm sure. * would probably invade under the reasoning of national security saying our economy couldn't sustain losing 15% of it's oil supplies.

[Sal Minella]

14. Also, their election obviously wasn't carried out properly

because a socialist won. Twice.
The U.S. needs to supervise elections in Venezuela so we can get the right sort of person elected, somebody more like Uribe in Colombia. /sarcasm

[aneerkoinos]

25. Sure Bush would wan't to

And US economy couldn't sustain loss of 15% of supplies.

But with what army and against what international reaction (what would China do, for example?)?

US is a giant with clay feet, about to tumble. I'll put my money on Chavez.

[brown6004]

7. Do they own CITGO?

What refineries?

[htuttle]

11. They own all of Citgo

It's owned by the Venezuelan national oil company (PDVSA).

[Jack_DeLeon]

22. Yep...

they have refineries in Corpus Christi, Tx. Not too far from where I'm at.

I wonder what this will mean to the local economic conditions. Will jobs be lost?

I also wonder what it means to the local availability of gas, typically down here in South Texas we get gas alot cheaper than most of the nation.

[leesa]

8. Why would it be hurting Chavez. Maybe he's not going to sell to you,

you arrogant fucker, Greehey!

[alexisfree]

9. go chavez!

[aikido15]

19. God, I love this guy!

:loveya:

[reprobate]

12. Chavez is tightening the thumbscrews on bush.

Let's see now. China growing like gangbusters. Same with India.

Venezuela now will be selling to china and Iran certainly will sell to anyone but us.

Meanwhile, there is a growing movement in south America to come together as a block to counter the US.

Same in Europe.

How the hell did we let ourselves reach this point in just four years?

At the rate Mad King George is making friends it'll be a race to see whether global warming or the rest of the world will destroy us first. And it couldn't happen to a more deserving nation.

I miss the Pre-Imperial republic.

Amazing how we resemble Rome more and more every day.

God Help America.

[Sandpiper]

13. The Coup de Grace will be when he starts pricing Venezuelan oil in Euros

Not dollars.

[AP]

15. This makes me nervous for the US.

If Hugo just doesn't want to be selling gas to the US because he doesn't like generating tax revenue or economic activity for the US, that's one thing.

But if they want to sell because they think it will never be worth more than now and that everything's going to crash here (and they can buy it back at a discount soon) then I'm a little freaked out.

[aneerkoinos]

26. You should be

I think Chavez is getting ready to declare oil embargo against US when the need arises, cutting potential losses beforehand.

US is trying to push Uribe into starting contra-operation against Venezuela, and Chavez will play hard ball and respond by stomping on the fingers of cliff-hanging oil-addicted US economy, wellcome free fall...

The odds are good that Chavez will win and US will be destroyed. :)

[Neshanic]

16. China has a blank check and a hot pen waiting to write a number!

It takes alot of oil to power the machine that supplies China-Mart.

[underthedome]

17. Actually this doesn't mean much of anything

The price of oil isn't go up for the U.S. and go down for the rest of the world, that's not the way it works. The move by Chávez is little more than a finger to Bush.

[aikido15]

18. I happen to like that one finger

Salute to Bush! Viva la Chavez!:toast:

[Cats Against Frist]

20. Here comes coup attempt Numero Dos

I like how the oil exec says "Venezuela will just be hurting Venezuela."


Riiiiiggggght. Seeing as we're spending a couple hundred billion to get control of Iraq's oil, and I hear we're nearing peak oil, I think any country with oil has it pretty much made in the shade.

[Rainscents]

21. I hate to say this...

I do hope Venezuela do stop seeling oil to US... I want to see Bush and the company fall flat on their face and creat huge crisis here.

[Igel]

30. That's a nice progressive attitude.

Increase unemployment and malnutrition, as long as a RWer looks bad.

Unreconstructed Marxist, are we?

[Judi Lynn]

23. Media Fall Short on Iraq, Venezuela

Media Fall Short on Iraq, Venezuela

June 01, 2004

By: Mark Weisbrot
Knight Ridder

........ The Bush administration has been pushing for "regime change" in Venezuela for years now, painting a false and exaggerated picture of the reality there. As in the case of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and links to Al- Qaeda, the Administration has gotten a lot of help from the media.

Reporting on Venezuela relies overwhelmingly on opposition sources, many of them about as reliable as Ahmed Chalabi. Although there are any number of scholars and academics -- both Venezuelan and international -- who could offer coherent arguments on the other side, their arguments almost never appear. For balance, we usually get at most a poor person on the street describing why he likes Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, or a sound bite from Chavez himself denouncing "imperialist intervention."

Opposition allegations are repeated constantly, often without rebuttal, and sometimes reported as facts.
(snip)

According to the U.S. State Department, "There no reports of political prisoners in Venezuela." <5> And far from being "muzzled," the press in Venezuela is one of the most furiously partisan anti-government medias in the entire world. Two months ago one of Venezuela's most influential newspapers actually used a doctored version of a New York Times' article to allege that the Chavez government was implicated in the Madrid terrorist bombing! <6> But the media has never been censored by the Chavez government. <7>
(snip)

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=7516&fcategory_desc=Venezuela

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. A bit more detail in this story

Chavez said Jan. 28 that the U.S. is ``robbing'' the country of tax revenue because of unfair contracts between Petroleos de Venezuela and Citgo.

Chavez said Citgo's contracts gave the U.S. a discount on oil prices. Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez made similar comments in May 2004. Citgo's contracts include discounts of as much as $4 a barrel, Ramirez said.

Citgo's U.S. refineries may be attractive to refinery owners in the U.S. because they are equipped to process Venezuela's heavy, high-sulfur crude, also known as sour oil. Most refineries are equipped to process light, sweet crude oil, and the U.S. price benchmark is a sweet crude oil.

When oil rallied to an all-time high of $55.67 a barrel in October last year in New York, the price of sour crude oil lagged. Sour crudes are available from many sources, including Saudi Arabia. Much of the additional oil Saudi Arabia pumped when it increased output last year to help ease prices was sour crude oil, analysts said, and supply of the lower-quality oil outstripped demand.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=arbQdSA.8b70&refer=news_index

I think the reasoning behind owning the US refineries was that it guaranteed they would keep processing the Venezuelan sour crude, rather than the Saudi. Perhaps this means that the Chinese are committed to processing sour crude over the long term too, so that Venezuela know they have a market there too.

[IndianaGreen]

28. "We are subsidizing Mr. Bush"

The reason Americans get cheap energy is because we use our military power to exercise control over oil rich nations. Why do you think we told Saudi Arabia that Saddam was getting ready to send his army across the border of Iraqi occupied Kuwait into the Saudi oil fields? We wanted the Saudis to agree to let US troops on Saudi soil.

Why did Osama strike the US on 9/11? US troops on Saudi soil.

[VegasWolf]

31. Damn, tonight chimp will announce that Venezuela will join the axis

of EVIL!!!