The country with the world’s largest oil reserves is importing gas
A pretty damning indicator about Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela: Experts said that Venezuela has shifted from exporter to importer of gasoline under the Hugo Chávez administration, which is forced to import fuel and components to process it from the United States, not only for internal consumption but to allow the state enterprise Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. ...
A pretty damning indicator about Hugo Chavez's Venezuela:
A pretty damning indicator about Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela:
Experts said that Venezuela has shifted from exporter to importer of gasoline under the Hugo Chávez administration, which is forced to import fuel and components to process it from the United States, not only for internal consumption but to allow the state enterprise Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) to fulfill contractual commitments.[…]
According to the Department of Energy, Venezuela imported 1 million barrels of processed gasoline only in December 2011, which, added to the its purchases from the United States of crude oil and oil derivatives reached a total of 2.21 million of barrels.
Experts said that the refinery capacity in Venezuela has been dismantled in the last 10 years, first by a Chávez administration decision to sell the PDVSA refineries abroad, and later due to a chain of accidents and maintenance problems in the country’s main refineries.
Some parts of Venezuela have begun rationing fuel. This is a country with the world’s largest crude oil reserves — some 290 billion barrels — that has touted its program to provide free home heating oil to low-income Americans.
Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
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