The refineries in the West Indies are there because of more relaxed environmental laws.
Bias note: Citgo charters one of my company's ships at c.a. $40,000/day.
Fun fact: 2 weeks after hurricane Katrina, I was working on a Shell (owned by the Dutch Gov, btb)-chartered ship. We took 150,000 bbl of diesel and 90,000bbl of regular unleaded from Delaware to the mouth of the mississippi, then were ordered to anchor, where we sat for 2 weeks. Then we brought everything back up to NJ.
My point is that at least a mad dog like Chavez will have the decency to stab one in the FRONT. It's dirty Europeans like the Dutch that will throw us under the bus.
Would you happen to know how many refineries are located there? Or capacity there compared to capacity in the 48 states?