Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Venezuela, Once an Oil Giant, Reaches the End of an Era
NY Times ^ | Oct. 7, 2020 | Sheyla Urdaneta, Anatoly Kurmanaev and Isayen HerreraPhotographs by Adriana Loureiro Fernandez

Posted on 10/07/2020 7:56:14 PM PDT by BeauBo

For the first time in a century, there are no rigs searching for oil in Venezuela.

Wells that once tapped the world’s largest crude reserves are abandoned or left to flare toxic gases that cast an orange glow over depressed oil towns.

Refineries that once processed oil for export are rusting hulks, leaking crude that blackens shorelines and coats the water in an oily sheen.

Fuel shortages have brought the country to a standstill. At gas stations, lines go on for miles.

Venezuela’s colossal oil sector, which shaped the country and the international energy market for a century, has come to a near halt, with production reduced to a trickle by years of gross mismanagement and American sanctions. The collapse is leaving behind a destroyed economy and a devastated environment, and, many analysts say, bringing to an end the era of Venezuela as an energy powerhouse...

Soon after he was elected president in 1998, Mr. Chávez commandeered the country’s respected state oil company for his radical development program. He fired nearly 20,000 oil professionals, nationalized foreign-owned oil assets and allowed allies to plunder the oil revenues...

Sanctions forced the last American oil companies in the country to stop drilling. They may leave the country entirely in December, if the Trump administration ends their exemptions from sanctions...

More than five million Venezuelans, or one in six residents, have fled the country since 2015, creating one of the world’s greatest refugee crises, according to the United Nations. The country now has the highest poverty rate in Latin America, overtaking Haiti this year

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Cuba; Foreign Affairs; Russia
KEYWORDS: cuba; energy; hydrocarbons; maduro; maga; nicaragua; opec; russia; socialism; venezuela
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 last
To: SmokingJoe
Venezuela....."The country now has the highest poverty rate in Latin America,

overtaking Haiti this year".....and it didn't take long at all.

And figure this photo...during a power outage A gas flare lights the street!


61 posted on 10/07/2020 11:44:43 PM PDT by caww (...This constant pretending the president is a problem is pure evil!...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: caww

Crude seeping from abandoned underwater wells and pipelines coats the crabs that former oil workers haul from the lake with blackened hands........When it rains, oil that has oozed into the sewage system comes up through manholes and drains, coursing with rainwater through the streets, smearing houses and filling the town with its gaseous stench.

“There are no jobs, no gasoline, but the oil is spilling everywhere,” said Francisco Barrios, a baker.

Maduro’s retreat from oil has left the shrinking Venezuelan economy comparable to that of the ‘Democratic Republic of Congo!

(from the article)


62 posted on 10/07/2020 11:53:17 PM PDT by caww (...This constant pretending the president is a problem is pure evil!...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill

Thanks....good read there!


63 posted on 10/07/2020 11:56:19 PM PDT by caww (...This constant pretending the president is a problem is pure evil!...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: BeauBo

Now if we can just ship all the socialists down there.


64 posted on 10/07/2020 11:56:53 PM PDT by McGruff (Polls are for dancing)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmokingJoe

Haiti was once the wealthiest French colony but the French Revolution’s uprising on the island did to Haiti what Chavez did to Venezuela. Killing/driving out all the White people did not help either.


65 posted on 10/08/2020 12:11:21 AM PDT by Monterrosa-24 ( ...even more American than a Russian AK-47 and a French bikini.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: bigbob
I'm into recovery.

It would take G7 resources 5 Trillion and 15 years to fix Venezuela.

But yes, it would be worth it for SA and the world.

Don Jr. and Eric would be a good start.

66 posted on 10/08/2020 12:11:28 AM PDT by onona (but I do enjoy your leap into a ditch.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: McGruff
Venezuela Orders 71 Tons of Paper To Print New Banknotes Worth 23 Cents

.....while Maduro hands out a roll of toilet paper saying..."Make it last"....


67 posted on 10/08/2020 12:25:34 AM PDT by caww (...This constant pretending the president is a problem is pure evil!...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: BeauBo

Venezuela, Once an Oil Giant, Reaches the End of an Era
We can just here the applause in the news room of the nyt


68 posted on 10/08/2020 2:39:26 AM PDT by ronnie raygun ( Massive mistakes are made by arrogant fools; massive evils are committed by evil people.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill

(sigh) United Fruit used to handle these situations for us.


69 posted on 10/08/2020 2:49:08 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: BeauBo

Another triumph of socialism.

and a preview of the USA under the Harris Administration


70 posted on 10/08/2020 2:54:23 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lockbox

Don’t forget that Socialists also get rid of decadent western luxuries that are exclusively for the rich.......like food and toilet paper.....


71 posted on 10/08/2020 2:58:15 AM PDT by FLT-bird
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: Monterrosa-24

Haiti was a wealthy tourist area in the 20th century; it fell apart when they tossed their dictators.


72 posted on 10/08/2020 3:58:20 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: BeauBo
But the NYT says nothing really bad about socialism except for some of what Hugo did, but seems to blame the US: "the United States accused Mr. Chavez’s successor and protégé, President Nicolás Maduro, of election fraud and enacted severe economic sanctions to force him from power."

The sanctions forced the last American oil companies in the country to stop drilling. They may leave the country entirely in December, if the Trump administration ends their exemptions from sanctions.

the transition has allowed Mr. Maduro to keep the loyalty of the military and weather the punishing American sanctions, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/world/americas/venezuela-oil-economy-maduro.html?smid=tw-share

Meanwhile the main concern is that of oil pollution (note that the majority of the latter WW is from natural leakage).

73 posted on 10/08/2020 4:41:52 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BeauBo
Fuel shortages have brought the country to a standstill. At gas stations, lines go on for miles.

The Democrats' wet dream for America.

74 posted on 10/08/2020 4:45:26 AM PDT by Skooz (Gabba Gabba accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Roland the Thompson Gunner made his name there.
That was before he lost his head.


75 posted on 10/08/2020 4:50:21 AM PDT by Skooz (Gabba Gabba accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: BeauBo
Lagovan asphalt from Vz was America's top choice for making roof shingles. Roofing companies paid a premium for the stuff.
Then Chavez had a better idea; blend it off and send it to China for a lower netback.
76 posted on 10/08/2020 5:06:02 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BeauBo

——left to flare toxic gases-——

That phrase discounts the credibility of the whole article.

It took four people to produce that trash


77 posted on 10/08/2020 5:13:27 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) t Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay My, oh, my, what a wonderful day)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lurker

“Wonder how many remember the Biafran war of the 1970s.”

Remember Biafra Babies?

L

...and Jello Biafra, formerly of the group Dead Kennedys


78 posted on 10/08/2020 5:18:59 AM PDT by Covenantor (We are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who can not govern. " Chesterton)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: SmokingJoe
"Poorer than even Haiti? The once richest country is South America? Ouch."

Double and triple ouch! when I was in college at LSU I had a guy from Venezuela in one of my nuclear science classes. Genius intellect and a damned nice guy. Majoring (of course) in petroleum engineering. Offspring of Jews who got out of Germany ahead of Hitler. I hope he and his kin had the foresight to get out in time.

79 posted on 10/08/2020 6:57:19 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (No Longer Tolerating Trolls!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: bert
"That phrase discounts the credibility of the whole article."

Not really. Venezuela oil deposits have the unfortunate side effect of also producing lots of hydrogen sulfide in the natural gas associated with the oil, which really IS horribly toxic. Not to mention having your whole country smell like rotten eggs. Flaring it off is by far the safest and easiest way to make it "less bad"...the sulfur dioxide formed is still toxic, but far less so.

80 posted on 10/08/2020 7:36:51 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (No Longer Tolerating Trolls!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson