December 29, 2002

Fuel shipment arrives in Venezuela

Venezuela has received its first shipment of petrol from abroad, as a general strike which is paralysing its own oil industry threatens to continue for a fifth week.
[...]
The world's fifth-largest oil exporter has been forced to import food and fuel due to worsening shortages.

Opposition groups, trade unions and business leaders have vowed to continue the stoppage which began on 2 December until President Chavez steps down.
But Mr Chavez remains defiant.

"We haven't yet obtained victory but we are going to win the battle for [state oil company] PDVSA, the battle for Venezuela," he said in a speech in Puerto La Cruz.

The government says troops and loyal oil workers are moving tanker ships and restarting halted production wells - a claim disputed by striking oil executives.

Oil executives say the Brazilian shipment will not go far in alleviating the crisis, as it is only little more than a normal day's demand of 400,000.

One strike leader, former PDVSA executive Juan Fernandez, compared it to "emptying a bottle of water in the desert".

The head of PDVSA, Ali Rodriguez, has said a further 400,000 barrels will be imported from Trinidad.

But another strike leader, Horacio Medina, told Union Radio that five million barrels of petrol were needed to get the situation back to normal.
Mr Rodriguez says about 700,000 barrels of oil are being produced each day - compared to normal levels of 3.1 million.

However, strikers have scorned that claim, saying the real figure is closer to 200,000 barrels per day.

Food supplies have also been severely affected by the strike and the government says it has been forced to import 180,000 tons of food from neighbouring Colombia.

If Chavez were a smart leader--which he's obviously NOT--he'd listen to the strikers and move to take his country's oil industry back to the private sector.
It seems he has bought what loyalties he still enjoys from the nation's poor by giving them free homes when he came to power in 1998, one presumes from "excess profits" in the state treasury from oil sales...
Like his idol Fidel Castro, Chavez also spoke on TV this month for five hours, rumor has it. Glad I don't live there!
Venezuela should be a cautionary tale for Saudi Arabia, viz. an OPEC country that has squandered its hefty oil revenues due to a corrupt oligarchical régime which has nationalized that industry.
And Saudi doesn't have the arable land or neighbors with arable land that Venezuela does, either!
The economies in Brazil (now led by another Communist like Chavez) and Colombia cannot be depended on by Chavez for long, either.
Not to mention how totally crazy it is for an oil-rich country to be forced to pay top dollar to import oil!
Meanwhile, back in the U.S.A, where we import 14% of our oil from Venezuala, the winter has just begun with a major snowstorm in the North East and we're going to war with the world's 2nd largest oil producer, so we need Venezuelan oil and gas now more than ever!
And after the mess Chavez has made of this country, they're going to need the USA, too,...especially a strong dose of American free-market capitalism and democracy!
Simon Bolivar lives...but he wouldn't know Hugo Chavez!