Leaving a buoy with a large placard bearing this image:
Posted on 06/24/2010 3:32:30 PM PDT by jackspyder
CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela's government has seized control of 11 oil rigs owned by U.S. driller Helmerich & Payne, which shut them down because the state oil company was behind on payments.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez announced that Venezuela would nationalize the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company's rigs. He said in a statement Wednesday that Helmerich & Payne had rejected government demands to resume drilling operations for more than a year ...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Forget plugging the well, just pull the bonnets off the BOP, pull about 30 stands and the collars real fast without filling the hole and run!
Yahoo! It would make a glorious mess!
Valero sells gas from American oil.
Double Ditto - It’s not like there were NO flashing red neon warning / danger signs....
Whataburger...yes
Valero no...San Antonio
I wonder if they had insurance to cover this lose?
I guess all the refineries threw me off.
You're missing the point, as well as blaming the victim
Let's say you run a rig. Chavez nationalizes the one next door. Who on earth can you sell your rig to? Answer: no-one on earth. Chavez will 'buy' it, but the price he offers is zero.
So you mothball the plant. But Chavez threatens to seize it if you don't agree to resume work at a functional loss (including risk costs, you see).
Still not worth running the plant. So Chavez steals it, knowing that the worlds' SuperPower is suffering from temporary insanity and won't stop him
“U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said he hopes Helmerich & Payne is compensated and suggested the takeover and other recent nationalizations are scaring off private investment in Venezuela.
“We would just call on them, if they did make such a move, to compensate the owners of those wells,” Toner said. “This is the latest in such an instance where international investors, their investments are being nationalized by the government of Venezuela. It doesn’t speak or bode well for the investment climate there.”
OHHHH...THE IRONY! Obama runs around nationalizing banks,student loans,car manufacturers and soon the US oil companies and nary a word.Yet these US government takeovers of private property have the same effect on investment and economic growth as what Chavez is doing to his country. (eye roll)
At one time, only an American could be President of the United States!
You plug the well and remove the hardware.
This is an act of war.
I expect Obummer to apologize to Hugo for putting him in the uncomfortable position of having to seize an American company.
I feel like I live in bizarro world.
There. Fixed it.
New tagline.
One that pretty much seems appropriate every day now...
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela will nationalize a fleet of oil rigs belonging to U.S. company Helmerich and Payne, the latest takeover in a push to socialism as President Hugo Chavez struggles with lower oil output and a recession.
A former soldier inspired by Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez has made energy nationalization the linchpin in his 'revolution'. He has also taken over assets in telecommunications, power, steel and banking.
The 11 drilling rigs have been idled for months following a dispute over pending payments by the OPEC member's state oil company PDVSA. Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Wednesday the rigs, the Oklahoma-based company's entire Venezuelan fleet, were being nationalized to bring them back into production.
Ramirez said companies that refused to put their rigs into production were part of a plan to weaken Chavez's government, "There is a group of drill owners that has refused to discuss tariffs and services with PDVSA and have preferred to keep this equipment stored for a year," Ramirez told reporters in the oil producing state of Zulia. "That is the specific case with U.S. multinational Helmerich and Payne."
WHO will run them?
I don’t have any confident idea that there are sufficient workers in Venezuela that can run something this com;licated for any length of time.
I was thinking computer program sabotage. ‘tis the modern age after all. You screw up the computers and not much will work. (and maybe my buddy, Spartacus, sent an anonymous email suggesting that)
Leaving a buoy with a large placard bearing this image:
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