[StJacques]

". . . After the 11 US refineries which handle Venezuelan Crude are switched to other feedstocks, which takes a while, Chávez would really be up a bit of a creek, because in order to use the stuff, other refinery facilities would have to be found and adapted . . ."

The "adapted" part is more important to Venezuela than one might normally think because most Venezuelan crude has a high sulfur content, which requires special adaptation on the part of refiners to extract. And it's not some little adjustment either. You are talking about building what amounts to almost a "mini-refinery" just to remove the sulfur. This is a lot different from Middle East oil, which every refiner wants to get his hands on.

[NicknamedBob]

Would you agree that one way to look at a "still" is as a refinery where sugars, starches, and cellulose are "cracked" to produce various alcohols?

[Kenny Bunk]

I wonder where Chávez is going to sell his sludge, if not to us. Could it be that his ace-in-the-hole is the CHICOM?

Awful long way for a tanker to go, but then again lots of empty tankers do show up in Venezuela. OTOH, the CHICOM have a lot of oil a lot closer.

On yet another hand, his relations with FARC could mean he means to go big-time in the self-administered botanical medication business. He's going to go bankrupt and will need the cash-flow.