Posted on 12/29/2004 9:13:31 PM PST by maui_hawaii
Venezuela plans talks with Panama next week on a proposal to pump oil through a Panamanian pipeline to the Pacific in order to cut shipping costs to China, the Venezuelan foreign minister said Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez denied that new agreements signed last week to sell Venezuelan oil to China are part of any strategy to decrease oil exports to the United States, the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan crude.
He said Venezuela has no intent to "sacrifice the North American population" but rather expects to "increase that flow of energy."
The pipeline across Panama is being considered as a low-cost option for shipping oil to China, to which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has agreed to sell 120,000 barrels of fuel oil a month.
The pipeline was built years ago to carry up to 800,000 barrels of oil a day from the Pacific to the Caribbean, but is now carrying a relatively small quantity, Rodriguez said.
The pipeline is owned by Petroterminal de Panama S.A., a joint venture involving the Panamanian government and U.S. investors.
Some businesses and Panamanian officials have suggested that pumps could be built to reverse the flow and send crude from the Caribbean to the Pacific - providing an economical route for Venezuelan oil, Rodriguez said.
At the same time, he said, a smaller pipeline could be built to accommodate the small flow currently coming from the Pacific to the Caribbean.
"There are Chinese businesses that have expressed interest" in the project," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said he will travel to Panama on Sunday to discuss the pipeline proposal.
Wire services are quoting Venezuela Foreign Minister (MRE) Ali Rodriguez Araque as saying that oil officials will meet with the Panamanian government for further discussion on a project to pump oil through an existing pipeline from the Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean.
Rodriguez Araque has, however, denied that the pipeline project will in any way affect oil exports to the United States but agreements signed in Beijing last week to sell Venezuelan crude oil to China have been received unconvincingly in Washington D.C. where Beltway bureaucrats are already upset by Caracas warnings to back off from interfering in Venezuela's sovereign domestic-political affairs.
While Rodriguez Araque is emphatic in saying that there is no intention on the part of Venezuela to cut oil supplies to the United States, President Chavez Frias has several times warned the White House that continued funding of Venezuela's anti-democratic opposition efforts to overthrow his government will not be tolerated.
Rodriguez Araque, who until recently was president of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) explains that Venezuela is seeking to increase its production capacity to 5 million barrels a day (bpd) from a current 3.1 million bpd.
Venezuela has agreed to sell China 120,000 barrels a month and to give the Chinese freee rein to help PDVSA pump crude from 15 Venezuelan oil fields ... and that is why Venezuela is out to reduce transport costs to the Pacific by using a pipeline across Panama which was built years ago to carry up to 800,000 bpd east from the Pacific.
Panamanian officials say that the existing pumps can be reversed to send crude east-west across the Panama isthmus to the Pacific for loading aboard tankers en route to China's eastern seaboard terminals.
Whether or not there will be Chinese financial or technological support for the latest Venezuelan project is not immediately clear but Rodriguez, just returned from accompanying the President to Beijing on a 5-day official visit over the Christmas holiday says he will fly to Panama this weekend for top-level discussions.
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=24103
Thank you Jimmy Carter. Who could have forseen the chicoms taking over the whole canal and getting a strategic choke point in our backyard? </sarcasm>
Carter not only sold out the canal, he hated the Shah of Iran and aided the ayotollahs coming to power. These misguided America hating leftists have done all they could to destroy this country. It makes me sick and the second party I blame is the republicans, for not calling the dems what they are and warning this country properly.
You are so right. The GOP is not that far removed from the Rats. The problem is that you just can't get people to vote out the incumbents. We need to demand that our Representatives and Senators do the job that we sent them to DC to do, which is represent our interests. If they don't, we need to send them home.
Don't worry about it. I suppose I will make everyone mad about this, but really, it wouldn't hurt for Venezuela to diversify its customer base. 80% of its oil goes to us. A downturn here will impact them. Not only that, they have a lot of undeveloped oil, so if they want to develop Chinese markets, why not. They aren't proposing to sell any less to us. Let it go. It's gonna cost the Chinese big to get their oil all the way from Venezuela when they could get it much cheaper productionwise and transportwise from the Saudis and Russians.
My suspicion is that Chavez is gonna lose big money on this idea. He always does, he is that bad a money manager. And there are things the Chinese won't put up with out of him, too.
Answer: Anyone but Jimmy Carter?
That run was tanker from Alaska to Panama where we pumped the crude ashore. American tankers picked it up on the East coast of Panama and shipped it to Texas.
I wonder which country will be next.
I would not want to see Cuba become wealthy while it is still a Communist state. Ironic considering the foofaraw that we just went through about Cuba and dollars.
I haven't kept up with this story, but I would be unsurprised to find out that this oil is off in the Gulf, towards Florida's west shore. I would certainly like to see Florida's oil resources in the Gulf developed.
And China and North Korea just had delegations in Cuba. What a happy festival of communist rhetoric that must have been over the discussion of oil and money.
I think the Cubans are lying. Even if they aren't, they aren't gonna get the investment they think they are.
"Who could have forseen the chicoms taking over the whole canal and getting a strategic choke point in our backyard? </sarcasm>"
When is this chinese canal takeover supposed to happen? I live a few miles from it and haven't seen anything yet, though I keep reading about it here in the past tense, apparently from confusion about the balboa and cristobal ports deal with H-W.
"Amazing what cash money and a willing attitude can accomplish: China has signed on Iran and Venezuela in just a few months. And they have been wheeling and dealing in Canada.
I wonder which country will be next."
The writing is on the wall regarding China and its place in the world in this century - possibly number one or two in many economically important categories within a few decades.
The 20th century was, in part thanks to europe committing suicide TWICE, the American century - beyond any doubt.
The 21st century, particularly the second quarter and beyond, may very well NOT be.
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