[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

They can't get their own oil out of the ground. Ah...The wonders of socialism.

[hinckley buzzard]

I think Venezuelan oil is a rather low quality that requires special refining capabilities lacking at home. One thing American oil companies did right was to ship it here for refining.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

So, Hugo, how’s that nationalization thing going?

[ExTexasRedhead]

http://www.stopthenorthamericanunion.com/videos/LindseyWilliams.html

[Joe Boucher]

I may be wrong but it seems Venezuela and other countries had a lot easier go of retrieving their oil when they dealt with American oil companies.
But hey Venezuela a socialist paradise doesn’t need all the extra revenues.

[BfloGuy]

Yet Venezuela continues to export oil (due, as mentioned above, to its high refining needs.) Nonetheless, it reminds me some of the USSR’s exporting wheat even as millions of Russians were dying from famine.

[353FMG]

“Venezuela increases petroleum imports despite vast deposits at home”

This move will keep the oil price up and therefore hurt the US. Old Chavez is not as dumb as we try to depict him. He does understand the supply/demand game.

[theymakemesick]

I read the headline and had the best laugh of the week, way to go, Sluggo. You’re doing a great job! /s

[RightWhale]

Importing petro product. Some refineries are offshore and do not belong to Venezuela. Been so since 1920.

[jsh3180]

El Hugo and Chavismo:

Nationalize private industry

Set price controls on goods

Confiscate private property

Install windfall profit taxes on the state run oil industry

Use all of the above to increase giveaways to the masses to protect popularity.

Result:

Oil production down 18% year over year, three years running as confiscatory policies cause maintenance of oil infrastructure to be neglected.

Inflation running at an annualized rate of 40%.

State run grocery store shelves bare, except for weevil infested beans, chicken necks and ten year old powdered milk as farmers smuggle their produce into Colombia to fetch market prices.

This is much what a future America could look like with an Obama Presidency and a 2/3 Democrat majority in Congress.

[NRG1973]

Venezuela has about 1/2 trillion barrels of heavy oil in the Orinoco Belt. But, since Hugo Chavez took over, their production has dropped from 3.5 million bpd to about 2.7 million bpd (see chart at link below). That represents a 23% reduction in oil production in 9 years. Incompetence is the order of the day in the Venezuelan national oil company (PDVSA).

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Venezuela/Oil.html

[FormerACLUmember]

Thanks to Marxism and Chavez, Venezuela will be impoverished in no time flat.