Many months ago, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez started nationalizing ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips holdings in his country, which eXXXon has vigorously fought. Now, Triple-X has gotten Venezuelan assets frozen in several countries, up to $12 billion in value, pending winning an appeal of Chavez’ nationalization seizure.
Part of me likes Chavez keeping the U.S., and folks like Exxon, on their toes. Part of me likes how he is realigning Latin American politics. But part of me recognizes that he’s showing himself to be an idiot on heavy-oil oilfield development.
Knock each other silly, I hope.
Exxon, Chavez battle heats up
2 comments:
Who knows?
Maybe *you* are the idiot!!
But I do not want to offense you.
Why do you say Chávez is an idiot?
Can you clear this up?
Thank you!
This is simple. Chasing out ExxonMobil and ConocoPhilips without serious efforts at negotiating the nationalization issue, when Venezuelans have no experience with production of the heavy oil that makes up most the reserves the country has left -- especially when Venezuela could become a net oil importer in a decade or so without developing its heavy oil -- pretty much fits the definition of "idiotic" in my book.
Chavez has done a lot of good things in challenging blind U.S. hegemony in Latin America; that doesn't change the fact that he's also an idiot in a lot of ways.
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