Venezuela seeks China oil deals

CounterVortex

Venezuela has announced it is working on a number of new oil deals with China, as it aims to reduce its dependence upon crude exports to the US. The China National Petroleum Corporation is expected to sink new investments in Venezuela’s oil facilities. The announcement comes as President Hugo Chavez is pushing a reorganization of Venezuela’s oil industry which would strip major US companies such as Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron of their majority stakes in Venezuelan oil projects. “The United States as a power is on the way down, China is on the way up,” said Chavez after the announcement. “China is the market of the future.” (BBC, March 25)

We hate to remind Chavez, but the China National Petroleum Company has got some pretty bad karma of its own.

See our last post on Venezuela.

  1. Deal signed
    From AlJazeera, March 27:

    Venezuela has signed deals to supply oil to China as part of a drive by Hugo Chavez, the south American nation’s president, to break his dependence on energy exports to the United States.

    Venezuela will double its exports to China by sending 300,000 barrels per day of crude in 2007, officials said at a signing ceremony in Caracas on Monday.

    “Venezuela has always said it wants to turn itself into a secure and increasing source of oil supply to China,” Chavez said at a gathering marking the visit of Li Changchun, a member of China’s Politburo Standing Committee.

    China is the world’s second biggest oil consumer.

    Venezuela says it pumps about 3.3 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) although analysts say the figure is about 2.7 million.

    It is the fifth-largest oil exporter to the United States.