I thought they produced oil...what is going on? If you have oil, then refine it and sell it, put your people to work, don’t expect the world to support you without doing anything...
When you steal all the profits and don’t pay your suppliers, then no one wants to sell you stuff or help make your refineries and production keep working.
Those filthy capitalist workers want to get paid for their labor instead of donating it to build a socialist utopia. And don't even mention those foreign suppliers who expect to be paid for what they ship in, instead of giving it to support the revolution.
A FReeper commented earlier today that Venezuela has little refining capacity, and they rely on the US to refine their icky, low quality oil.
Venezuelan oil is difficult to refine. It is very thick, almost tar-like and is loaded with sulfur which has to be removed. The US refineries are the only ones capable of refining it economically. I had read that the Chinese were going to upgrade their refineries to handle it, but that takes lots of time and money.......................
BTW, CITGO gasoline is the Venezuelan STATE OWNED corporation................