SOME READING MATERIAL

Tuesday 4, November 2003

I am a little tired and without inspiration these past days, too much traveling I suppose. Fortunately the press has come up with some interesting articles.

Let's start with the debacle in the oil industry. In spite of all of Chavez efforts to pretend that we are pumping as much as before the strike and that everything is just, just wonderful, well, evidence is to the contrary. The Houston Chronicle under the pen of Brian Ellsworth treats us to a rather harrowing description of the deliquescent Venezuelan oil industry.

Two quotes to capture the spirit of the article:

"I used to repair 200 to 300 pumps per month, but I haven't been called to service anything since February," said one contractor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Buyers complain of high water content of crudes, and contractors report high sand presence in wells and constant problems maintaining well pressure.

and more damning:

Figures provided by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the U.S. Department of Energy show Venezuelan oil production close to 2.6 million barrels per day, down from almost 3 million barrels per day in November 2002 and considerably below its quota of 2.9 million barrels per day.

This comes after Venezuela has been one of the most noticeable of the OPEC quota cheaters, despite Chavez's pro-OPEC rhetoric.

Furthermore, Venezuelan authorities now insist on including upgraded synthetic crude as part of petroleum production figures, whereas Venezuela previously categorized synthetic crude as bitumen and therefore not part of quotas. While Venezuela used to understate its production figures, now it is doing its best to inflate them.

The next article is a commentary in the Miami Herald by Oppenheimer and Gunson. The article "Chavez steps up criticism of U.S." describes the mounting campaign (hysteria?) of the Chavez administration trying to find any excuse (enemies?) to distract from the incoming recall election attempt.

Just a quote that the reader can compare with what I wrote on the subject on October 28 and 29:

He has hinted that the U.S. ambassador in Caracas is gay and branded Bush administration officials as ''imbeciles'' and ''criminals,'' while his minions accused the CIA of trying to destabilize the government.

As a side comment I was told that Oppenheimer on TV interviewed Iris Varela and she did not come out too great. It is interesting that Chavez minions are dodging Venezuelan TV and trying to find friendlier spotlights elsewhere. Tarek Saab, the foreign comittee president of the National Assembly, was the victim of such a try in Colombia a few days ago on the guerilla. Compared to his Colombian counterpart in the debate he looked very tense, very repetitive, very unoriginal. It is really good that people outside of Venezuela can see live the second rate politicos that rule our unfortunate country.

PS: I will put the whole articles in the documents section.