China's oil diplomacy offers aid in Latin America

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2005/03/06/2003225714

China is the world's second largest oil user and it is now stealthily moving into territory the US used to consider its own backyard

Latin America is becoming a rich destination for China in its global quest for energy, with the Chinese quickly signing accords with Venezuela, investing in largely untapped markets like Peru and exploring possibilities in Bolivia and Colombia.

China's sights are focused mostly on Venezuela, which ships more than 60 percent of its crude oil to the United States. With the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East, and a president who says that his country needs to diversify its energy business beyond the United States, Venezuela has emerged as an obvious contender for Beijing's attention.

The Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, accompanied by a delegation of 125 officials and businessmen, and Vice President Zeng Qinghong(´¿¼y¬õ) of China signed 19 cooperation agreements in Caracas late in January. They included long-range plans for Chinese stakes in oil and gas fields, most of them now considered marginal but which could become valuable with big investments.

Chavez has been engaged in a war of words with the Bush administration since the White House gave tacit support to a 2002 coup that briefly ousted him. Still, Venezuela is a major source for American oil companies, one of four main providers of imported crude oil to the United States, inexorably linking the two countries' interests. snip

In return, China is offering the Venezuelans a US$700 million line of credit to build housing, aid that helps Chavez in his goal of lifting his compatriots out of poverty. The recent trip also yielded plans to invest in telecommunications and farming.

more

[murray hill farm]

1. Interesting, isn't it?

How it is all playing out!

[bemildred]

2. Stealthy my ass. The US media don't cover it. Morons. nt

[NNN0LHI]

3. Thats the NYT for you n/t

[oblivious]

4. Boy is that ever true.

I just tried googling info on the March 5 India-Venezuela oilfield deal after seeing the AFP article in Al-jazeera. Outside of India and a few other non-western countries it's been ignored. Reuters and AFP seem to have made the info available but virtually no one in the West picked it up. The few western papers that report on the visit mention his threats to the US, not the deal. Amazing!

Chavez's comments here are interesting:

Chavez told India's top industrialists on Friday that he was looking for new markets for his country's oil because Venezuela's biggest customer, the United States, was destablising his government.

"Did you know that for more than 100 years we never sold our oil to countries like Argentina, Cuba or Brazil - only the US? But now we are diversifying."

"We are selling to our Latin American brothers, we are selling to China and we would like a long-term relationship with India," Chavez said.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2005/March/subcontinent_March136.xml§ion=subcontinent

Also this:
Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA has said it to review 33 contracts with ChevronTexaco Corp., ConocoPhillips and other oil field operators in the country and rejected a business plan by Houston-based Harvest Natural Resources to drill. It also planned to sell eight refineries in the U.S.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aGdwWUwKZEIg&refer=top_world_news

And this:
"Venezuela will now help the Southern Hemisphere countries with its oil more than it has helped the United States," he said. "America wants to keep all the good things in the world for itself. But we will not let them do it."
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=554814

Fascinating all right!

[bemildred]

6. Oh it's there all right, but you have to look for it.

I just google the names of Latin American nations (one after the
other) and check a few sites and most things turn up. But all you
find in the US press is how he's "threatening" his neighbors by
offering to sell them oil cheap and barter services and trying to
build his own economy. Oh and how he "hates America" (WTF do they
think he is?) and various other pejorative descriptions.

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. The USA's Achilles Heel exposed . .

.
.
.

and the World starts nibbling away at the Rogue's weakness . .

OIL

Can't run a War Machine without it, now can you?

:nopity: