Central America to seek cheap oil in Venezuela

[bemildred]

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Central American countries, worried about the impact of high oil prices on their economic growth after Hurricane Katrina, recently said they will pay a visit to Venezuela to seek cheap crude from the world's fifth largest oil producer.

The economic difficulties of Central American countries, most of which have to rely on imports for industrial demand, were exacerbated as refiners and pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico were crippled by Hurricane Katrina.

---

"The consequences of the world oil crisis we are faced with are pretty much like that of an earthquake or a tsunami," said El Salvador President Antonio Saca at the end of a regional meeting held in Nicaragua.

Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco also described the recent rise of international oil prices as a "blow to developing countries and mostly to poor ones."

China View

[SoCalDem]

1. Pretty soon, the US will be the only western hemisphere country

with gas gougers .. Central & south Am are going with Hugo..Canada may just decide to see to its own country's needs, and we'll be high and dry..

This whole "global oil" crap is nuts too.. It make a whole lot of sense to "keep" oil local..It's stupid to build super tankers to ship oil such distances.. Let the refineries adapt to the oil that's available and close to them..The companies surely have all the money they would ever need to build a bunch of them (of course the 'shortage' aids their bottom line)

Can Venezuela supply ALL of SA , caribbean and central america?? Can Hugo make enough money by selling to neighbors for a fair price?

[bemildred]

2. It's Che's vision.

One single mestizo nation from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego.
The idea has been there for a long time.

[Darranar]

3. Simón Bolívar's, too...

"Now truly the dream of Bolívar is beginning to move toward fulfilment." - Hugo Chávez, May 2005

It is a good idea, a far better alternative to the thinly-veiled imperialist system of "free trade," and it may well be the solution to five centuries of injustice.

[Say_What]

10. Speaking of uniting...

the latest from NACLA...

<clips>

VENEZUELA: ENERGY POLICY FOR AMÉRICA

Continuing his courtship of Latin America, President Hugo Chávez has introduced a bevy of energy proposals over the past months aimed at uniting a region where historical rivalries and economic necessity often trump sound long-term foreign policy. Whether Chávez’s Alternativa Bolivariana para las Americas (ALBA) indeed offers a sound alternative to the U.S.-backed FTAA remains to be seen, but the Venezuelan President has successfully made his case throughout the region by introducing initiatives tailored for each audience.

At a June summit of Caribbean leaders in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela, Chávez proposed the formation of PetroCaribe, “a body aimed at facilitating the development of energy policies and plans for the integration of the nations of the Caribbean,” according to the text of the initiative. Under the program, non-oil producing Caribbean countries would improve their preferential access to Venezuelan crude originally established by the San José accord of 1980 and the Caracas Agreement of 2001. Once implemented, PetroCaribe would subsidize oil purchases relative to the market price: the higher the price, the larger the discount. Costs related to oil exploration, extracton and distribution would also be subsidized by Caracas.

In the Southern Cone, Chávez and President Néstor Kirchner signed an agreement in September 2004 giving birth to PetroSur. Leaders of the five Andean countries took steps toward enacting PetroAndina in July 2005, with Chávez hoping for final ratification this December. Both PetroSur and PetroAndina offer incentives similar to PetroCaribe. Together, the three regional programs would fall under the umbrella of PetroAmérica, a consortium of all state-owned energy enterprises in Latin America.

Not all countries are convinced. Trinidad and Tobago, the United States’ largest supplier of liquefied natural gas demurred on PetroCaribe. Barbados also balked, citing procedural obstacles but more likely concerned about souring its relationship with Trinidad and Tobago, the exclusive refiner of Barbados’ crude oil production. PetroSur conspicuously lacks Chile’s signature, due to that country’s trade agreement with the U.S., and Colombia—heavily dependent upon U.S. aid and often at odds with Venezuela—could back out of PetroAndina before final ratification.

http://www.nacla.org/art_display.php?art=2597

[1932]

4. I suspect Venezuela's strategy would be to give other developing countries

cheap oil so that they have a competitive advantage in their economic development other countries that are slaves to US neoliberalism, and when those economies develop, Venezuela will be looking for the back-end scratch -- they'll hope that their good deeds will be repaid through tight economic ties between fellow anti-neoliberal, progressive governments.

[bemildred]

5. And, when Uncle Sugar gets a wild hair up his ass,

it's good to have friends with an interest in your survival.
It's a very smart stategy on many levels, as well as a very
moral one. The zero-sum, dog-eat-dog approach Uncle Sugar is
so fond of will be blown out of the water by cooperation and
teamwork among nations once the ball gets rolling.

[MisterP]

6. a slow, chilly, but glacially unstoppable revolution

[KansDem]

7. Actually, Venezuela has offered cheap fuel to US as a relief pledge...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the United States, offered to send cheap fuel, humanitarian aid and relief workers to the disaster area.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/04/katrina.world.aid

So when will we see the positive effects of this offer?

[bemildred]

8. Actually, they are doing it:

Venezuela's Citgo sets up hurricane relief centers

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's Citgo Petroleum Corp. has set up disaster relief centers in Texas and Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and has begun providing humanitarian aid to thousands of American victims, an official said Monday.

Volunteers at Citgo refineries in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Corpus Christi, Texas, are providing medical care, food and water to a total of about 5,000 people, Venezuela emergency management director Col. Antonio Rivero told The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, volunteers from the company's Houston headquarters have provided similar help to some 40,000 victims, Rivero said.

The oil producing country, a major supplier to the United States, also will follow through on its offer to send 1 million barrels of gasoline to the disaster zone as soon as possible, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said during a visit to Jamaica.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/12572483.htm

[KansDem]

9. Thanks for the info! It's Citgo gas in my tank from now on! (eom)