How Bad Off Is Oil-Rich Venezuela? It’s Buying U.S. Oil

[Independent voter]

How can things get so bad?




Much more at link

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/21/wo...l-economy.html


EL FURRIAL, Venezuela — One oil rig was idle for weeks because a single piece of equipment was missing. Another was attacked by armed gangs who made off with all they could carry. Many oil workers say they are paid so little that they barely eat and have to keep watch over one another in case they faint while high up on the rigs.

Venezuela’s petroleum industry, whose vast revenues once fueled the country’s Socialist-inspired revolution, underwriting everything from housing to education, is spiraling into disarray.

To add insult to injury, the Venezuelan government has been forced to turn to its nemesis, the United States, for help.

“You call them the empire,” said Luis Centeno, a union leader for the oil workers, referring to what government officials call the United States, “and yet you’re buying their oil.”

The declining oil industry is perhaps the most urgent chapter of Venezuela’s economic crisis. Oil accounts for half of the Venezuelan government’s revenues, what former President Hugo Chávez once called an “instrument of national development.” The state oil company poured its profits, more than $250 billion in all from 2001 to 2015, into the country’s social programs, including food imports.

But those profits have evaporated with mismanagement and the drop in global oil prices over the past two years. Now, even Venezuela’s subsidized oil shipments to its vital ally Cuba are slowly being phased out, oil executives with operations in Venezuela contend, forcing Havana to look to Russia for cheap oil.

For Mr. Chávez and his handpicked successor, President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s oil wealth has been essential to the nation’s identity and sovereignty, the financial might behind its regional ambitions and its angry defiance of the United States.

[Damajin]

Yeah, that's cronyism for you in a nutshell. Wrecked them hardcore and turned that whole country into a free for all where a dozen eggs are 150 bucks and people are breaking into zoos to kill the animals for meat.

Can't say I'm too sympathetic to them, though I do agree that the US government has stuck its' nose too much in their and other places' business way too often.

[TrumpIsPresident]

How can things get so bad?

Communism. Unions.

[Shibito]

Socialist paradise like lots of lefties parties in Norway are inspired by THANK GOD they got no power.

[Tradewind]

Communism. Unions.

I think what you meant to say was the freefall of oil value, same as in the late 80s.

[jdbond592]

Socialist paradise like lots of lefties parties in Norway are inspired by THANK GOD they got no power.

Unlike conservative paradise aka USA where drill baby drill and "energy self-sufficiency" would lead to "free gas" and freedom. One has to wonder why companies are selling "American oil" to foreign countries!

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I think what you meant to say was the freefall of oil value, same as in the late 80s.

Bah...stahp using logic! Perhaps one should visit North Dakota for change? I love basket case American states..

[Templar 331]

Sad to see but when you get half of your revenue from a source you can't control you're going to hit a snag if you don't prepare for the worst.

Also: Lol at anyone who thinks this is what will always happen if "socialism" is allowed in any form.

[I Push Buttons]

Sad to see but when you get half of your revenue from a source you can't control you're going to hit a snag if you don't prepare for the worst.

Also: Lol at anyone who thinks this is what will always happen if "socialism" is allowed in any form.

Haven't you seen this thread before?

There have probably been like 20 threads on Venezuela in the last few months and every single one INSTANTLY devolves into a "$150 eggs socialist utopia" shit show.

[Forogil]

Haven't you seen this thread before?

There have probably been like 20 threads on Venezuela in the last few months and every single one INSTANTLY devolves into a "$150 eggs socialist utopia" shit show.

And years before that we saw the pamphlets spouting the benefits of Venezuela and that "Another world is possible."
Well, it sure showed that "another world" is possible; but not a better world.

[The Stormbringer]

They should have poured their money into diversifying and building more farms/subsidizing and incentivizing farmers to expand their operations. Socialism isn't the issue, it's the fact that they were too god damn stupid to make sure their economy had more to depend on than one overly-taxed item: oil.

[TrumpIsPresident]

I think what you meant to say was the freefall of oil value, same as in the late 80s.

The fluctuations of a single economic sector typically don't crush entire nations unless they're communist, and of course unions destroy the prosperity of anything they infest so that's some tasty icing.

[Tradewind]

The fluctuations of a single economic sector typically don't crush entire nations unless they're communist, and of course unions destroy the prosperity of anything they infest so that's some tasty icing.

Communism has nothing to do with it. Sure reliance on a single industry to float your economy is a bad idea regardless, but it has fuckin' nothing to do with communism or socialism. It's just bad governance in general.

Failure to diversify is not a staple of any political or economic ideology. It's a staple of idiots though.

[Belize]

I think what you meant to say was the freefall of oil value, same as in the late 80s.

And why do you think oil prices are falling?

Communism. Boom.

[Tradewind]

And why do you think oil prices are falling?

Communism. Boom.

I'm going with Poe's law on this because whaaaaaaat lol.

[Belize]

I'm going with Poe's law on this because whaaaaaaat lol.

#Shitposting

[GennGreymane]

And years before that we saw the pamphlets spouting the benefits of Venezuela and that "Another world is possible."
Well, it sure showed that "another world" is possible; but not a better world.

lol what?
/10chars

[Tradewind]

#Shitposting

.

[Bigbazz]

Just last year their oil industry was still funding a Formula 1 driver (Pastor Maldonado) to the tune of multiple millions every year just so he could keep his seat as a paying driver, it's crazy when you think about it.

[Dezerte]

Evil Socialist Communist ideologies obviously.

[I Push Buttons]

And why do you think oil prices are falling?

Communism. Boom.

Communists (Venezuela) produce a whopping 3% of the world's oil... China isn't communist, if you retort by including them, but even if you did its still only 8%,