Monday, February 27, 2006
Venezuela Threatens Oil Cutoff To USA
Tensions between Venezuela and the United States are continuing with a threat by the Venezuelan Oil Minister to halt shipments of oil to the U.S.
President Hugo Chavez's government has recently stepped up threats to cut off oil exports to the United States and sell Venezuelan-owned refineries there amid rising tensions with President George W. Bush's administration.
"If our country, our process, our constitution are attacked by the Bush administration, we are not going to send any more oil," Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez told the Ultimas Noticias daily in an interview. "We'll see then which of the two governments is able to manage this type of a situation better."
Venezuela exports about half its production of 3.2 million barrels a day to the United States, much of that refined and sold by the Venezuela-owned Citgo Petroleum Corp. Venezuela supplied 10 percent of U.S. oil imports in November, the latest month for which U.S. figures are available.
There are quality problems with the high-sulfur crude produced in Venezuela requiring special refineries which are mostly located in the United States.
The distance issue involved in shipping Venezuelan crude to Asia (the biggest prospective market) would be have to be an additional consideration before any such punitive action is taken by Chavez.
