Venezuela Is Selling USA Less And Less Oil

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Instead of following Jimmy Carter's lead, America voted for Reagan and gas guzzling. Now we are paying at the pump. Venezuela is shipping more oil to China rather than America.

Venezuela is sending more and more oil to China.

Venezuela's Oil Sales to U.S. Drop as Chavez Sends More to Asia
Peter Wilson, Bloomberg

Venezuelan oil shipments to the U.S. fell 6 percent in the first four months of the year as President Hugo Chavez followed through on his plan to find new markets for his crude, according to data from the U.S. Energy Department.

State-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA has been sending more tankers of oil and fuel to India and China, markets that are up to seven times more distant than the U.S. customers that traditionally take most of the country's exports. Venezuela was the third-biggest OPEC producer last month, with output of about 2.6 million barrels.

``Two things are clear,'' said Roger Tissot, an oil analyst with PFC Energy, a consulting firm in Washington. ``Venezuela wants to reduce its dependence on the U.S., and it wants to position itself in the world's fastest growing markets, such as India and China.''

China isn't refining this oil. They are storing it. I blogged about this in the past, picking up the news from Chinese news services. I wonder why so few people read communist news? Seems an obvious place to discover information!

Venezuela should be our dearest friend. But because the people there voted for sharing the oil wealth, our rulers hate them with a passion and are doing everything possible to make them enemies. So China found it laughably easy to make friends and carry off the black gold. They depend on our reflexive menacing everyone to make things easier for them doing business.

High fuel prices aren't 'hurting' us but this is why we are exporting all our industry, right? Right.

In early June Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke spooked markets worldwide with fears of energy-fueled inflation. With its latest interest-rate increase a few weeks later, the Fed hinted those fears may have passed. Indeed, the economy seems to have handily absorbed a sevenfold increase in oil prices since 1999. "If it was gonna bite it would have bitten harder by now," says Alec Young, strategist at S&P Equity Research Services.

Even with oil's startling surge, from $10 a barrel in 1999 to the $70 range lately, the resulting rise in gasoline prices has had nowhere near the impact of the last oil crisis, back in the early 1980s. Gas was at 7.2% of consumer spending 20 years ago--but it is at only half that rate today (3.7%). As a slice of the U.S. GDP, gasoline is down by a third, to 3%.

Nor is growth a problem. Industrial production in May was up 4.3% over a year ago, and capacity utilization is at 82%, above the historical average. Corporate profits keep growing despite the oil inflation that was supposed to roil business. Companies in the S&P 500 have racked up a record four years of up earnings and look to increase profits another 12% this year.

One key: This time around oil prices have risen at a slower and more stable pace, says Hillard Huntington, director of the Energy Modeling Forum at Stanford University. In the Arab oil embargo in 1973 prices more than doubled in three months. That spread economic mayhem because makers had to seek new efficiencies even as sales slumped.

I love blind economic analysis. Heh. I remember the sixties and seventies. I was off on my own since my sixteenth birthday in 1966 so I have a long history of juggling money here and overseas. America was sliding off the fiscal cliff well before 1973. Anyone remember wage/price controls? The Vietnam war was chewing up the dollar. In 1968, my dollar bought 4 DM in Germany. In 1973 it bought 2.5 DM! Gah! I would have starved to death in Germany!

In the USA my rent went from $50 a month to $100 a month from 1968 to 1973. The problem in 1973 wasn't the price hikes, it was the panic and the gas RATIONING that began! Off and on during the following decade, we had GAS RATIONING. The price would have been much higher if we didn't have rationing but Nixon wasn't a free booting Republican, note the 'wage/PRICE' control part. Instead of letting prices shoot up, he instigated rationing. Ditto Ford and Carter!

So comparing today with then is silly.

Today, the dollar buys less and less. This is a disaster on many fronts. It isn't helping us sell industrial goods because we have barely any left outside of Boeing. And our executives are farming out even more American jobs to China to make up for inflation so of course, the price of goods isn't going up except for food, medicine and all other things we need. I just boosted the economy by installing a better hot water system, for example.

It was made in Japan.

It cost a lot and I won't be buying any pizzas any time soon. So stuff made in America is off my shopping list because I can't afford it. I grimace when I think about filling the propane tanks this fall. It will cost over $500. Gah. I have a gas miser car so I don't flip at the pump. But anyone suggesting workers on stagnant wages are not being stripped clean are lying. Flat out lying.

The after effects of the home ATM machine going full blast is still keeping people shopping but this is going to fade fast now that gas prices are going up and up. When they were dropping below $2.50 a gallon, many foolish people who watch American media propaganda thought the price would drop forever so they didn't panic.

Now that the price is over $3.00 a gallon and climbing, fear is causing more than one American to shiver at night as they wonder how they will pay all the bills. I see gas guzzlers for sale all over the place. They are becoming the most common lawn ornament around. They sit there, day after day, endlessly. Inert.

The G8 want to keep Russia out while keeping Russia friendly with energy.

ALEX NICHOLSON
Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - Leaders of the Group of Eight said Sunday that they were committed to transparency, competition and increased investment in the energy sector in a joint statement on energy security, a focal theme of this year's G-8 summit.

Delegation officials, however, suggested that the upbeat statement was out of synch with the real situation, not least because of concerns over the openness of Russia's vast energy markets.

"We agree that development of transparent, efficient and competitive global energy markets is the best way to achieve our objectives," the 12-page communique said.

It identified 11 key issues, among them diversification of supply and demand, energy efficiency and the safeguarding of critical energy infrastructure, including against possible terror attacks.

Transparency? Who are these idiots? Tell it to the guys surrounding Bush! They are the most secretive people on earth next to the Saudi Royals who also connive with Bush! And the G8 is worried about Russia?

This is silly. Joining in the yell fest to disarm Iran is also foolish. They want the energy Iran sits on secured? Then they should be giving Iran nukes. Then no one will invade Iran like IRAQ did. I remember Europe and America egging on IRAQ when Saddam invaded! So what happened to 'energy security' back then? Ah! We are supposed to forget the near past! Collective Alzheimer's is needed if one wants to huff and puff about strategic events. And we wonder why Europe slid into so many world wars!

America gets lots of oil from Mexico.

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer 2 minutes ago

MEXICO CITY - Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through the Mexican capital on Sunday to demand a manual recount in the disputed presidential election, led by a leftist candidate who says fraud cost him the presidency.

As a precaution, the Roman Catholic Church canceled Mass at the city's downtown cathedral as supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador began to overwhelm the central plaza to the sound of firecrackers and bands. Police officials in the pro-Lopez Obrador city government estimated the crowd at 900,000.

A million people. Wow. Once again, the good people of Mexico show Americans how to do things. When Bush started to steal the election in 2000, I rushed into DC to do something. No one else showed up! A bunch of people protested the swearing in but that was way too late! Oil companies fear any leftist running any oil country. They might share the wealth with those pesky peasants we hate so much.

Of course, making life better for the masses would fix our own immigration problems but Americans are supposed to not pay attention to this.

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