Chavez Threatens to Halt Oil Sales to US

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an "economic war" if Exxon Mobil Corp. wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.

Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion dollar oil project by Chavez's government.

A British court has issued an injunction "freezing" as much as $12 billion in assets.

"If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we're going to harm you," Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, "Hello, President." "Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger."

Chavez has repeatedly threatened to cut off oil shipments to the United States, which is Venezuela's No. 1 client, if Washington tries to oust him. Chavez's warnings on Sunday appeared to extend that threat to attempts by oil companies to challenge his government's nationalization drive through lawsuits.

"I speak to the U.S. empire, because that's the master: continue and you will see that we won't sent one drop of oil to the empire of the United States," Chavez said Sunday.

"The outlaws of Exxon Mobil will never again rob us," Chavez said, accusing the Irving, Texas-based oil company of acting in concert with Washington.

Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross said the company had no comment. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Caracas did not return a call.

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Venezuela accounted for about 12 percent of U.S. crude oil imports in November, the latest figures available from the U.S. Energy Department. The 1.23 million barrels a day from Venezuela makes that country the U.S.'s fourth-biggest oil importer behind Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has argued that court orders won by Exxon Mobil have "no effect" on the state oil company PDVSA and are merely "transitory measures" while Venezuela presents its case in courts in New York and London.

Exxon Mobil is also taking its claims to international arbitration, disputing the terms it was granted under Chavez's nationalization last year of four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin, one of the world's richest oil deposits.

Other major oil companies including U.S.-based Chevron Corp., France's Total, Britain's BP PLC, and Norway's StatoilHydro ASA have negotiated deals with Venezuela to continue on as minority partners in the Orinoco oil project.

ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil, however, balked at the tougher terms and have been in compensation talks with PDVSA.

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Associated Press writer John Porretto in Houston contributed to this report.

Comments

[Steppenwolfer]

Quotes here from the corporate apologists are proof of how anti-democratic the US has become:

Worldtraveller wrote:

“You are forgetting the cost of building those big giant offshore rigs to get it out of the ground in the first place, that Venezuela never paid for and suddenly decided that they were theirs)”

First, those rigs and plants were subsidized by Venezuelan tax dollars, like they are everywhere in the world. Second. the oil there was discovered and extracted by working people, not Exxon bosses, who work, pay taxes and create markets as consumers in Venezuela. The oil belongs to them, not a bunch of pork-chop parasite capitalists, bureaucrats and titled lay-abouts.

“Who do you think owns EXXON? One individual named Mr. Exxon? Or millions of individuals through state funds, mutual funds, etc. The tax on their revenue is shared by everyone as well.”

Giving a socialistic illusion to what is in fact a brutal capitalistic institution is what Stalinists do.

Corporations’ money, like the government’s money, is in fact our money, since we work and pay for it. But we don’t get to democratically control it. Most private, publicly traded or state-owned corporations are not cooperatives. They are not based on democratic voting with everyone getting equal and full access to information and right of speech. Most publicly traded shares, like in mutual funds, are non-voting; and there are executive multi-class voting shares that are only available to controlling interests and established investment houses. That’s dictatorship.

We need to democratize our economy, which is what freely elected center-left coalition governments in South America, including Venezuela, are trying to do. That’s why they are so hated by the US ruling clique, its political puppets and media.

Adc wrote:

“Go for it Hugo! Then Uncle Sam will have all the justification he needs for wiping your commie ass off the planet!”

This is why mass murder, exploitation, propping dictatorships and invasion is such a part of the US legacy.

Those who equate the Republican Party with the Nazis are not far off the mark.

[Steppenwolfer]

Rockin thanks to posters WorkingClass and Greywolf for breaking a few corporate taboos and telling it like it is.
This while scuffle between the US and Venezuela truly is between dictatorship and democracy--freedom vs tyranny.
The Bolivian coalition government in Venezuela is a pluralistic democratic socialist movement that was freely elected in fair elections fought for and finally won in 2002 with a general strike that toppled the US-backed banana dictatorship and brought in a new constitution and began initiatives to democratize the economy-via worker co-ops, union-sponsored ventures, community based sustainable business, etc.
The US is little more than a loose version of a totalitarian one-party-­pretending­-to-be-two police state run by dictatorial elite-run corporate capitalist tyrannies that control and blackmail most of the economy—both here and across the globe. The vicious actions by the cliques that control Exxon-Mobil, demanding to take what legally isn’t theirs clearly shows this.
In Venezuela, there are dozens of major political parties contesting elections, in which the Bolivarian coalition is just one that happens to enjoy majority support—with obvious good reason; and there are dozens of independent large-scale news and media outlets.
In the US, the electoral system is closed to just two parties mainly controlled and funded by elite wealthy corporate interests; where seven corporations control over 80 per cent of the media; where every amendment and guarantee under the Bill of Rights can be violated or squashed under the guise of national security or trade secret; where politicians, especially Republicans, constantly pay tribute to the violent austerity and mass murder policies of the Reagan Administration, particularly against Central and South America.
I hope Chavez does cut off oil to the US. There are obviously a lot of better trading partners out there. Maybe that will encourage Americans to start demanding investment in clean sustainable energy and motor technology.
Oh ya, oops, I forgot. That would inconvenience Corporate America and the parasitic cliques that run it too much. Can’t have that, can we. That would be “Un-American.”

[Graywolf48]

If Chavez shuts off the oil tap it will be like a heroin dealer cutting off a junkie. It could lead to a violent response. The CIA will either instigate a coup, assassinate Chavez or maybe Bush will find some excuse to invade Venezuela. Romney's sons are now free from the campaign trail to serve in the military along with the College Republicans.

One of the reasons we're instigating threats to Iran is not so much the threat of Iran developing nuclear weapons, but their threat to get OPEC to peg oil sales/pricing to the Euro instead of the dollar. There are plenty of markets for oil, China alone will be glad to pick up the slack and pay dollars or euros. Chavez also supports this idea. We need to find a way to wean our country from our oil addiction, soon, before it's too late and we have total economic collapse.

[wijg]

Good post.

[WorkingClass]

This is for the drone that scrubbed my remarks from this thread.

FUCK YOU!!!

[speakingtruth2power]

Flagged for pointless profanity.

[WorkingClass]

I always check out the Chavez threads. Chavez and like minded leaders in South America are advancing the cause of justice and democracy while mounting resistance to the Emperor Bushtinian. I wish them well. The Chavez haters here might as well carry a big sign that says "I am completely ignorant and hateful". VIVA CHAVEZ!

[adc]

Go for it Hugo! Then Uncle Sam will have all the justification he needs for wiping your commie ass off the planet!

It won't be an assassination attempt, mind you. Just a plain, straightforward invasion where you die and we appropriate the oil reserves.

That sounds like a plan to me.

[abbiehoffmansghost]

Put on the pointy hat and sit in the corner.

[mrcontinental]

Man we grow a lot of them here. What the hell happened to this country?

[adc]

I suppose you two think we ought to power this country on Magic Fairy Dust, eh?

If Chavez turns off the spigot, life in this country will get very hard for very many people. And as "liberal bleeding hearts" you ought to appreciate that.

I'm no Nazi - just pragmatic. You, on the other hand, want to live in a "fair" world. Grow up. The world ain't fair. Never was, never will be.

[condieshoes]

You have Exxon, taking billions of assets and freezing them from a country that produces those assets. What would we do if it were reversed????

And don't give me the crap about Exxon's investment into that country's oil production. So what. Exxon has gotten that money back long ago......

This is political, and viscious. Chavez should use all the tools at his disposal.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

Go ahead and do it you fucking schmuck. So tired of having to hear what this motherfucker has to say. He's a two bit thug who runs a nation that has oil, big fucking deal. Beat him to the punch and stop buying oil from his country. Let's see how long his economy can take that.

[adc]

Better yet, why not just take it?

[WIpatriot]

That would be Plan B.

[MilwaukeeDan]

gig, have you fallen on your head recently? China needs all the oil it can get to produce shit for the US/ world market and as they enter the 21st century, they will want to buy cars, 1.3 billion people, then add India and its 700 million. Their economies were made by the United States and the greedy here. Chavez doesn't need the US and its 300 million consumers.

[jasmoran66]

I'm sorry- did somebody just say something about oil?

[mellene]

That might be a good thing for us all. Something needs to awaken the citizenry to the fact that we need more public transit and less polluting automobiles on our roads. Most of the cities and towns I visit barely know what a bus is let alone have many for their residents to get round, so we're stuck with buying imported cars and imported gasoline.

[loki]

This would be one way to get troops out of Iraq.

Im sure the second Chavez pulled the plug on oil to the US, Bush would move him up to Terrorist # Uno in his personal deck of terrorist cards, and you would see 100,000 troops moved over night to south America, and another 100,000 blackwater assassin's moved right into Venezuela.
Im sure Bush would claim Chavez had a WMD or was personally providing shelter for Bin Laden, or raping little boys and gassing his own people , or one of the other excuses like in the case of Saddam.

[esgabel]

Hugo Honey! Keep your oil--you and Bush are brothers under the skin--all power and none to the people! Gargle with it!

[realitytrumpsbull]

The antidote to Chavez is called 'a honda civic'. Soichiro was The Man.

[HouseOfRoberts]

Not many refineries outside the U.S. can refine the heavy crude that Venezuela exports. He may find it difficult to follow through on his threat.

[Ramirez]

True. Venezuelan oil is classified as heavy, sour crude, and refineries that can handle it must have extensive desulfurization and bottoms-conversion units (Whatever that means... I just googled it).

In addition to that problem, Chavez is threatening to cut off the buyer of 60% of his nation's exports.

Good luck with that, Hugo.

[abbiehoffmansghost]

China can and will pick up the slack.

[loki]

I dont think that would be a big problem. Im sure the Chinese would be more than happy to spend a couple billion to build a few large refineries for this oil. Firstly because they could use it. Secondly because it would put the US in a bind. There is no law that says Chavez has to sell his oil to the US. Also, what is there to stop a 3rd party from handling the oil from Venezuela and selling it to the US. Or at least on paper and in profit. Kind of like they do natural gas now. Cities use to be able to buy Natural gas right off the well head and then store it until needed. Now, thanks to our wonderful government, cities have to buy from a middle man who does nothing more than make pure profit. It also increases the end price to the consumer.

[Ramirez]

Fungible.

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

First, Bush groveled to the Saudis to please, please, please lower their prices for barrels of oil. Now, a second-rate dictator intimidates our nation.

These are but the prelude to even greater indications that the United States is on the back slope of history. We are literally held hostage to oil, thanks to decades of waste, over consumption, failure to develop alternate sources of energy, and, finally, arrogance.

We possess the finest military establishment ever fielded, but we are a paper tiger economically. Forecast? Fall of the Roman Empire is an approximate model...

[andyg]

bozo, oil gone down from $100 to $88.

[WIpatriot]

And back up to $92 early this AM on the news....

[abbiehoffmansghost]

Double Bozo, the average price of gas on Bush's first day in office was $1.39 a gallon, as of last week the average was $3.07. Esplain, Lucy?