The Venezuelan oil industry is on a cliff's edge. Trump could tip it over.

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

The Venezuelan oil industry is on a cliff’s edge. Trump could tip it over.

By Rachelle Krygier and Anthony Faiola February 25

PUNTA DE MATA, Venezuela — The Trump administration is threatening to embargo Venezuelan oil, a potentially ruinous blow to the Saudi Arabia of South America. But here in the home of the world’s largest crude reserves, Venezuela is killing its largest industry all on its own.

Speculators once joked that all it took to strike oil on the vast plains of eastern Venezuela was a guy with a shovel. These days, the socialist government cannot seem to make the industry work. This vast extraction site near the eastern town of Punta de Mata, which once churned out 400,000 barrels of oil a day, is a tableau of hungry, idle workers and broken rigs.

The site about 280 miles east of Caracas, the capital, has been partly paralyzed since last summer. Of its 30 drills, only six work, in large part because of a lack of maintenance and spare parts. With time on their hands, many oil workers are functioning as security guards.

And with good reason. In decline for the better part of 15 years, Venezuela’s oil industry has entered a free fall in recent months, contributing to the nation’s economic and social chaos. The crude-heavy countryside is a lawless, bandit-ridden land. Three hours south of this industrial town, a gang of thieves recently raided another drilling site run by PDVSA, the state-owned oil giant. They tied up work crews and stole their cellphones before swiping air conditioners and kitchen appliances from company trailers.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/the-venezuelan-oil-industry-is-on-a-cliffs-edge-trump-could-tip-it-over/2018/02/24/1c8d6350-0b62-11e8-998c-96deb18cca19_story.html

[GatoGordo]

1. But... but... Maduro says output has increased 70% in the last month!

This despite

1. the head of PdVSA is nothing but a Chavista lackey who knows nothing about oil, let alone business
2. most (if not all) of PdVSA engineers have quit and gone off to work in Mexico, Brazil or the US
3. no maintenance, no spare parts and less than 20% of pumps active
4. no diluants to thin Venezuelan heavy sour oil, so it can't be pumped
5. no oil industry (Haliburton, etc) help
6. no hard currency to buy needed maintencence supplies
7. oil being confiscated by creditors (see above story)
8. not a ruble or yuan from Russia or China

They can't help themselves. They are bald face liars. Nobody believes them. And now that the electrical grid is failing also, they have the military guarding power stations... and these stations still erupt into flames! Maduro claims "SABOTEURS!" (or iguanas) despite the military's watchful eye! It would be funny if it weren't so sad.