I want it and so you MUST give it to me!

[The_Professor]

Venezuela pulls control from big oil companies
President Hugo Chavez makes an attempt to reclaim resources by taking operational control of the Orinoco Belt.
May 1 2007: 6:24 AM EDT

PUERTO PIRITU, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela will strip the world's biggest oil companies of operational control over massive Orinoco Belt crude projects Tuesday, a vital move in President Hugo Chavez's nationalization drive.

The May Day takeover comes exactly a year after Bolivian President Evo Morales, a leftist ally of Chavez, startled investors by ordering troops to seize his country's gas fields, accelerating Latin America's struggle to reclaim resources.

"The importance of this is that we are taking back control of the Orinoco Belt which the president rightly calls the world's biggest crude reserve," said Marco Ojeda, an oil union leader before a planned rally led to mark the transfer.

The four projects are valued at more than $30 billion and can convert about 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of heavy, tarry crude into valuable synthetic oil.

U.S. companies ConocoPhillips (Charts, Fortune 500), Chevron (Charts, Fortune 500), Exxon Mobil (Charts, Fortune 500), Britain's BP (Charts), Norway's Statoil (Charts) and France's Total (Charts) have agreed to obey a decree to transfer operational control, although the OPEC nation has complained ConocoPhillips has resisted.

Big Oil's money machine
In Puerto Piritu, near the facilities that refine Orinoco crude, workers prepared to celebrate the takeovers, displaying Venezuelan red, blue and yellow flags and painting a wall with Chavez's slogan: "Homeland, Socialism or Death".

The anti-U.S. leader has vowed to take at least 60 percent of the projects, radicalizing a self-styled leftist revolution in which he is ruling by decree and politicizing the army, state oil company and judiciary.

He is also quickly nationalizing power utilities and the country's biggest telephone company.

In the oil projects, negotiations over continued shareholding and compensation could prove contentious.

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has said there may not be compensation in some cases and that Venezuela will only consider agreements on the booked value of the projects rather than their much larger current net worth.

Industry analysts fear Venezuela's state oil company could ultimately run into production and safety problems when it loses the management and technology of the experienced majors. Although Venezuela claims output of more than 3 million bpd, analysts reckon it strains to pump 2.6 million bpd. U.S. data peg it as the world's No. 8 exporter.

Chavez was in a festive mood on the eve of the takeover to celebrate what he called the end of an era of policies dictated by Washington that gave away Venezuela's resources.

"The wheel has turned full circle," he said to cheering supporters at a workers' event.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/01/news/international/bc.venezuela.nationalization.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

[Xavier_Onassis]

So, your theory is that Venezuela's natural resources don't actually belong to Venezuela?

Is anyone less deserving of making tons of money than ExxonMobil, Shell, Conoco Phillips, BP and such?

[Plane]

So, your theory is that Venezuela's natural resources don't actually belong to Venezuela?

Is anyone less deserving of making tons of money than ExxonMobil, Shell, Conoco Phillips, BP and such?

There area lot of little old Ladys who epend on investments to suport their retirement , they might have been stupid to lend or invest in Venezuela.Other than the retirees who have too much in one type of investment this will not hurt much .

It will not hurt the corporate part of the companys at all.


But in Venezuela they can't expect the smart money to be lent or invested there anymore , Perhaps it will be a long time before they need any.

[Xavier_Onassis]

There area lot of little old Ladys who epend on investments to suport their retirement , they might have been stupid to lend or invest in Venezuela.Other than the retirees who have too much in one type of investment this will not hurt much .

It will not hurt the corporate part of the companys at all.
=========================================
If they do not have the oil to sell, they will not profit from the sale of the oil.

According to your rather lame theory, no publicly owned corporation can ever be punished, because only the poor old ladies who own stock in them will be affected. This is patently silly. Little old ladies rarely invest in oil development ventures. Those that do are very, very rich old ladies. Think Leona Helmsley, not the cast of the Golden Girls.

I have owned in the past and will probably own in the future, stock in several funds that invest in energy companies. When the returns excel, I buy and hold these. When they decline, I sell and move my money somewhere else.

Anyone that hasn't the brains to understand how stocks and funds work, should not invest in them.

Venezuela is one of the most fertile places on the planet, and yet, because of the reliance on foreign oil exports, they still import most of their food. Chavez proposes to use greater oil revenues to resettle citizens and provide them with electricity and roads to make self-reliance more possible. This is a worthy goal.

In the meantime, I am not going to feel sorry for Big Oil. They screw us every chance they get. The only way to deal with them is to profit when they profit and ditch them when they don't.

Chavez is not a recent phenomenon. Anyone who has been unable to see the writing on the wall is simply illiterate. Some extractive industries take out more profits in a year than their total capital investment.

[Plane]

Think Leona Helmsley, not the cast of the Golden Girls.

Reverse your statement and then it will be true , mutual funds are handling more retirement moneys than any other sort of investment .


The seriously wealthy and the corporate entity is not hurt by this , remember a corporation is not a person anyway , what is "punishment " to an entity like a corporation?


Venezuela is defaulting on a debt and taking what was lent , the main one to suffer will be the national entity of Venezuela (also not a person , but like corporations there are people who depend on it).

[The_Professor]

XO, one of the possible outcomes of this brazen act by the commie pig Chavez (had to get your goat there!) is that big corporations will think twice before investing large sums in speculative ventures in places such as Venezuela, and particularly that nation, even after this rebel-rouser is gone into Commie Hell. (just had to!)

[Xavier_Onassis]

Considering the fact that processing the oil and shipping it to market costs relatively nothing. it is possible that Chavez (who was elected by an actual majority of the Venezuelan people, unlike Juniorbush) might not need investments.

Of course, you might ask who needs lots of oil, sympathizes with Commie pigs, and has tons of dollars?

And that would be the CHINESE, of course.

It remains to be seen how efficiently Chavez will be able to control the Venezuelan economy. There is a long tradition of corruption in Venezuela, and Chavez alone cannot supervise everyone.

The fastest growing economy at the moment is the Chinese economy. They have been on a bigger and longer growth spurt than any country, anywhere, ever. I am pretty sure Chavez is aware of where the US trade imbalance is going...

Ironic, isn't it?

(If only they didn't have to worry about the environment, as the US Robber Barons didn't...)

[Amianthus]

Considering the fact that processing the oil and shipping it to market costs relatively nothing.

Actually, the processing and shipping costs are about half the final cost when fuel is delivered to market. The other half is the cost of the crude oil itself.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The cost of getting the oil out of the ground varies greatly from well to well. It is a super high profit product, once the location of the oil has been found.

If a shallow well is dug in a known oilfield, and there is sufficient pressure to force it up, the cost is far, far less than half. In the 1960's, Saudi crude cost about 25¢ a barrel to get it out of the ground.


Venezuela does not have to pay Venezuela for Venezuela's oil.

[Plane]

The cost of getting the oil out of the ground varies greatly from well to well. It is a super high profit product, once the location of the oil has been found.

You have a clue there , as to why Chaves is doing an immoral thing.

There is a lot of expense and risk involved in finding and opening an oilfeild , Mr. Chavez is dishonorably cheating the people who spent that expense and took that risk.

Imagine that youe were an investor with a lot of boodle to invest a few years back before anyone knew that there was oil in Venezeulan territory , would a Venezeulan government official be polite to you?

[Amianthus]

If a shallow well is dug in a known oilfield, and there is sufficient pressure to force it up, the cost is far, far less than half. In the 1960's, Saudi crude cost about 25¢ a barrel to get it out of the ground.

And all of those oil fields are already tapped and many played out. The oil fields that are being developed now are the ones where the cost is greater to extract the oil. In the 1960s, they would not have been considered economically viable, but with the increase in oil prices, it becomes more economically viable to extract oil from fields where the extraction costs are greater.