Chavez: Troops to Escort Oil Takeovers

Source: Associated Press

President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that soldiers will accompany government officials when they take over oil projects in the Orinoco River basin next month.

Chavez has decreed that Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, will take a minimum 60 percent stake in four heavy-oil projects in the Orinoco River region and invited the six private companies operating there to stay on as minority partners.

"On May 1 we are going to take control of the oil fields," Chavez said. "I'm sure no transnational company is going to draw a shotgun, but we will go with the armed forces and the people."

The projects — run by BP PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, France's Total SA and Norway's Statoil ASA — upgrade heavy, tar-like crude into more marketable oils and are considered Venezuela's most promising. As older fields elsewhere go into decline, development of the Orinoco is seen as key to Venezuela's future production.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_oil_takeover_1

exactly what is happening now and every step of the way. Wanna bet the war rhetoric begins to spin out of control now?

that were done to Cuba to undermine their economy and the Castro government by the US and US-sponsored parties. Oil fields and electrical plants were sabotaged, among other things.

It was the first thing I thought of when I read this post.

have fun, I bet they will be happy to transfer the knowledge and skill. If some one comes to take my house I am breaking the fucking chandelier.

And on may day, no less.. Shotguns jesus, this guy is nuts. Like exxon and bp haven't had their shit taken by other communist nuts and nationalists before. They write it off and jack us at the pump.

Troops and everything. Do they have a parade in front of the Kremli.. presidential palace with missiles and tanks?

Can we hurry up with the ethanol and biodiesel already.

on the buy out.

fuck chavez

:eyes:

nt

You aren't with Al-kader by any chance, are you?

You beat me.

for that. Where do I sign? Hablo un poco de espanol.

can be.

his country owns that oil, not the US. they can do what they like with it.

He needs the oil companies for their infrastructure. If I were BP, EXXON, etc. I'd tell Chavez to shove it. He needs good ole American know how.

Then let's see if he can develop the oil fields by himself.

Only Americans can have oil expertise, not the people who have lived there their whole lives. (sarcasm)

Who is Chavez going to get to mine the oil?

Only the US could figure it out.

Or the French.

Or maybe the Pakistanis.

Possibly the North Koreans.

Let's face it, without us, the world would cease to exist.

We both know it, even if Chavez and the majority of voters who elected him haven't figured it out yet.

sarcastic.

:)

just cos they'd be working for a nationalized industry instead of Exxon?

Hehe, that's pretty rich. I betcha for every person who moves on to something else because of this, there's two or three who stick around and take the state job.

You'd know that if you knew about the challenges of producing Orinoco fields. Venezuela does not enjoy a surfeit of homegrown world-class petroleum engineers, any more than Des Moines enjoys a surfeit of world-class opera tenors.

Read up on it at www.TheOilDrum.com or other nonpolitical sites where technical discussion of petroleum is more important than promoting political dogma.

No offense intended.

I have grown up in Houston and lived here all my life.
What I have heard from former engineers is that they are tired of the insecurity and the oil companies and support companies are always poor mouthing, even when they are making money hand over fist. There is no job security and you can look forward to being canned every couple of years or so.

So an awful lot of people who used to work in the oil bidness in Houston are sick and tired of it, and they refuse to go back to it, because they were fucked over royally many times. And then the oil bidness whines about how they can't find enough people to work for them, in the field or in the office.

That's what I've heard from a couple of ex engineers in supporting industries. Also there is plenty of age discrimination. They want somebody who's 25 years old with 30 years of experience who will work for minimum wage and unpaid overtime.

25=30?

My experience has been that the nice guys in the business are the ones who shoot you in the head first before they rip out your heart. And most of the people in the business aren't nice.

Peace.

not the nicest company you could work for. kind of a surprise they've been a san francisco bay area fixture for so long. what was surprising is the excellent treatment at Aramco. and it's pretty much now all controlled by the Saudis. considering some people's fears you'd think it'd be an abusive hellhole where they dump your carcass at age 40 (which is what i heard from around other american oil co.). there's some horror stories from ineptitude on part of some of the local workers under the imported professionals, to be sure. but on the whole Aramco was quite generous and kind to its imported professionals.

And there are plenty of countries willing to provide it...a minority stake in oil isn't something to sneeze at.

Very few if any countries have the expertise in oil and gas exploration and recovery that the US does.

nt

But don't let the facts get in the way of ideology.

Just as Venezuela will do. Along the way Norway has developed local expertise alongside its partnerships with the private companies. Venezuela will do the same. It is a model that works to the benefit of all parties concerned.

With Corporations like Halliburton populating the Global Market, Chavez will be able to BUY whatever he needs. Halliburton does biddness with whoever has the money. Politics and Idiology does NOT get in the way.

Only corporations like Exxon and BP are smart enough to gather the expertise to develop oil fields?

Isn't it an absurd idea that no other organization can compete with them because they are so unique?

"Of the 20 biggest oil firms, in terms of reserves of oil and gas, 16 are NOCs."
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7276986

NOC = national oil comapany. Of course The Economist thinks they ought to be privatized for 'efficiency'. Efficiency in this sense means more profits to private share holders, lower prices, and less revenue diverted to public needs. Obviously Venezuelans have a different idea about what is important.

Saudi Arabia of course runs its oil industry as a NOC. We don't seem to have much of a problem with that do we?

Those blasted commie Norwegians run their oil as a NOC, but nobody is claiming that this is a horror.

The best motivation for increasing efficiency is personal profit, but when the government is in charge, they are no personal incentives to do so, because you are spending someone else's money. Thats why our government doesn't do much about the inefficiencies in the spending for the Iraq war.

You could just tax a significant portion of the oil company's profits, and efficiency and state revenues could easily increase, and for us, the price of oil would decrease.

They are more interested in putting the revenue from the exploitation of their natural resources back into Venezuela. It might be better for you and me if their oil were cheaper, but perhaps not so good for Venezuelans. They will employ more people than they need, pay them more than they have to, and return lower profits to investors - horrors! Meanwhile people will have jobs, the social infrastructure will be rebuilt, and all Venezuelans will share in the proceeds.

I rather doubt that without re-nationalization of the domestic oil industry Venezuela would gain as much revenue as they will through re-nationalization.

I realize that efficiency is taken on faith as sufficient justification for all economic policies, however I simply do not have that faith. It is not like the planet is suffering from a deficit of productive capacity or a scarcity of goods and services. What we are suffering from is an inablilty to equitably distribute those goods and services, and political paralysis concerning how to restructure the economic infrastructure to deal with the real problems of global warming and peak oil. We will indeed end up back in a condition of scarcity of goods and services if we continue down the path of efficiency as god, of profit margins over all other considerations, that the washington consensus has been marching us down for the last 25 years.

But since they are minority shareholders they can only use their money against Venezuela and not the oil companies.

Don't worry folks. I'm sure you all want keep the same oil companies who brought you this war rolling in their ungodly profits, Private property is too valuble to allow the citizens of the country to profit from it's resources. :sarcasm:
This oil belongs to the people who live on it, and unless you are suggesting that we go fight them too, I think you ought to let diplomacy and respect take it's course. If they need some help, I'm sure they'll hire it, just like everybody else.

edit for sarcasm...

Stuck between a corporation and a state, two entities exercising incredible amounts of power over millions of people at any given time. I'm sure it'll end well.

I hope the Venezuelan people can control their destiny and natural resources. I hope Chavez and the 167 other Feudal Masters don't find a way to enrich themselves to far ahead of the rest of the people.

It would also be fantastic to see Venezuela become a Socialist Paradise, then I might immigrate down there when I'm old and get some free healthcare.

Imagine! Using the natural resources of a nation to help the people of that nation!

*Heal the Sick

*Feed the Hungry

*Educate the Ignorant

*House the Homeless

*Raise the Standard of Living for the MILLIONS of poor.

*Assist other poor countries with their burden of usurious debt payments to the RICH nations.

*Provide heating oil to the poor in the richest country in the World.

YES! I can see why some Americans HATE Chavez.
I can also see why MILLIONS (Majority) of Venezuelans LOVE him.

Viva Chavez!
I pray these reforms move North.

Whoops, Freudian slip.

When will Chavez be overthrown? Mossadeqh did something similar, and he was overthrown by corporate-lobbied governments in Washington and London.

The Iraq war has turned into a Proxy for Putin to control the price of oil.

Chavez is such a f@@@ing idiot

idiotic Hugo Chavez is. That would be a very good place for you to start.

Provide your evidence.

%%%%% ^^^^^ $$$$ ##### !!!!

Because after all, they voted for him in numerous elections, recalls, and a thwarted CIA led coup. So the population must really be retarded for not voting for the candidate of by and for the elite top .05%, huh?

Don't you really mean that he $$$$ his ^^^^ with &&&&& while ####ing your *****?

Are you younger than 10 or older than 80? Forget that, my mom is over 80 and she, to my dismay, is quite familiar with the f@@@ word. Are you younger than 10 or older than 90?

Nationalization has never worked and never will. Peru and Ecuador just sold back to competent multinationals everything it nationalized in the 70s and 80s. Why? RAMPANT CORRUPTION and LOUSY SERVICE. Up until 1995 it was hit or miss with a long distance call within the countries themselves. la Revolucion Agraria or Agriculture revolutions did nothing more than increase imports from abroad for Peru and Ecuador. I know that it sound wonderful to nationalize but what the Hell does Venezuela know about cutting edge oil extraction? I have lived in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Brasil and I have yet to see Nationalization of any service work effectively.

'cause 90% of the planet's oil is extracted by national oil companies.

which consists of a lot of people besides Chavez, and their many supporters in Venezuela (63% of the vote) are taking advantage of a very changed political climate in South America--a change that they have helped to effect--to push socialist policies at a quicker pace than would otherwise have been possible, and also to reclaim some assets for the common good, and in the interest of the sovereignty of their country and its people. State ownership of oil is not particularly revolutionary. I saw a figure of 77% worldwide--of governments that have nationalized oil. It doesn't mean that corporations can't operate there. It means that corporations don't OWN it, and thus can't use their corporate power to the detriment of the people who live there. After Exxon-Mobile & brethren tried and failed to overthrow Chavez with a violent military coup, they then tried a crippling oil professionals' strike--and it is against potential threats like that--of an industry bringing down the government, or trying to--that good peoples' governments want their main assets owned by state, and substantially operated by workers who are paid by the state.

The change in political climate is very great. I think violent overthrow of the Venezuelan democracy--and also of others (Bolivia, Ecuador)--has already been averted by a consensus of Latin American leaders. I was watching Bush's trip to Latin America recently, and I was astonished at some of the things that happened. The thing that really dropped by jaw was the rightwing president of Mexico publicly lecturing Bush on the sovereignty of Latin American countries, and using Venezuela as an example!

Bush heard this message his whole trip--"the sovereignty of Latin American countries." In fact, I think Latin American leaders placed a condition on Bush's trip--no Chavez bashing. And I think there may have been a particular cause of this consensus--besides the past history in Venezuela (the US-supported coup attempt, etc.). I think it was the huge scandals in Colombia, breaking into the newsstream, just before Bush's trip. The top echelons of the Uribe government (Bush's big pal in S. America) have been hit with shocking revelations of their involvement with rightwing paramilitary drug trafficking, mass murder of leftists and peasants, INCLUDING a plot to assassinate Chavez (and to destabilize Venezuela and other governments--likely Bolivia and Ecuador). The plot against Chavez surfaced in the Venezuelan presidential election in December. His opponent was obliged to distance himself from a plot to destabilize the country after the election and try another military coup. Then it turned up in Colombia--as one of the plots of these rightwing terrorist groups with ties to the CHIEF of the Colombian military. The Bushites have larded billions and billions of US taxpayer dollars on the Colombian military. And what I suspect is that Latin American leaders may be aware of Bushite involvement in these activities.

Some of the South American leaders engaged in very pointed and public supports of Chavez. Argentina's Nestor Kirchner, when told by the Bushites that Latin American leaders must "isolate" Chavez, said, "But he's my brother." Brazil's Lulu made a point of visiting Chavez two weeks before the Venezuelan election, for the opening of the Orinoco bridge. Ecuador's Rafael Correa, who was running for election, when asked what he thought of Chavez's remark at the UN that Bush is "the devil," replied that it was "an insult to the devil." (Correa's numbers soared, and he went on to win his election with 60% of the vote.) Then came the capper--rightwing/corporatist Calderon in Mexico lecturing Bush! And, following this, Paraguay joined the Bank of the South (which Venezuela started, to help bail its neighbors out of World Bank debt). And Uruguay turned down Bush trade deals to stay in Mercosur (the So. American trade group that may be the precursor for other Bolviarian ideas, such as a So. American "Common Market").

The new consensus is, a) Latin Americans are no longer going to put up with violent US/corporate interference in their countries; and b) everyone is seeing the benefits of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela--particularly its ideas of regional self-determination and regional cooperation--even the few more rightwing/corporatist-leaning governments. Venezuela's assertion of independence gives them all new power and a new sense of themselves as having a RIGHT to self-determination, and also a new sense that it can work, can be beneficial to everyone.

Chavez, having essentially beaten Bush, as to the future of South America--because Chavez's ideas are more beneficial than Bush's--Chavez and his government are pursuing their goals with vigor. Nationalization of the oil infrastructure is a logical extension of their notion of self-determination. Having won 63% of the vote (in the most highly monitored elections on earth), having, prior to that, beat back every attempt of the Bushites and of Venezuela's rich oil elite to overthrow democracy in Venezuela, and having gained allies all over Latin America, with the success of various projects, and the election of leftist (majorityist) governments (in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua--with strong leftist movements in Peru, Paraguay and Mexico), Chavez and his government feel that they can push positive change a few steps further. This is not 1954, or 1984. This is a new day. Predictions that Chavez will fail, or will be assassinated, and that will be an end to it, are wrong. Who can ever predict that someone will NOT be assassinated? I can't. No one can. But I do know this: IF Chavez is assassinated, the Boliviarian revolution will continue, undeterred--and might gain even more power by such an act. It is an idea whose time has come.

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Note: I recommend www.venezuelanalysis.com for non-global corporate predator information about Venezuela, Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution.