12-27-2018, 12:11 AM
*** 27-Dec-18 World View -- Socialist Venezuela's oil output plummets as refugee outflow surges
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** Socialist Venezuela's oil output continues to crash -- except for China joint venture
****
![[Image: g181226b.jpg]](http://Media.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g181226b.jpg)
Venezuelan migrants travel aboard a truck in Tumbes, Peru, near the Ecuador border, on 1 November (AFP)
Venezuela's economy desperately needs to be able to sell oil in order
to survive. But Venezuela's Socialist presidents Hugo Chávez and
Nicolás Maduro have done what many might consider to be an almost
impossible feat -- turned the country with the largest oil reserves in
the world into a country that can't produce oil. When you see
something like this, it's almost impossible to believe it happened,
but this is always what happens with Socialism. Other "Socialist
paradise" countries, including China, Russia, East Germany, Cuba and
Sweden, have partially or completely turned to free markets as their
economies spiraled into disaster, but only two countries in the world
haven't -- Venezuela and North Korea. And both are economic disasters
as a result.
In Venezuela, Maduro has fulfilled his Socialist dreams by turning the
country's nationalized oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela
S.A. (PDVSA) over to army generals and other political cronies to run,
lest some dirty capitalist make a profit on Venezuela's oil. Well,
Maduro has made sure that nobody is making money on Venezuela's oil,
including Venezuela.
Oil accounts for about 98% of Venezuela's export revenue, and in
November 2017, Maduro put Major General Manuel Quevedo in charge of
PDVSA, in the hope of stopping its collapse.
Quevedo is a Maduro crony but knows nothing about the oil industry.
In July, Quevedo joined his wife, a Catholic priest and a gathering of
oil workers in prayer to ask God to boost oil output. Prayer is a
great management technique, but unfortunately, God wasn't listening
this time. The collapse has continued, and production has dropped 20%
since Quevedo took over, and is now at the lowest level in nearly 70
years.
And now there are reports that Maduro is thinking of firing Quevedo
and replacing him with another army general who has no oil industry
expertise. Ironically, Quevedo is scheduled in January to assume the
rotating presidency of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) for one year.
There is one subsidiary of PDVSA that that has increased oil
production this year. Sinovensa is jointly owned by PDVSA and China
National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), and it accounts for about 10%
of Venezuela's oil output.
China has lent over $50 billion to Venezuela through oil-for-loan
agreements over the past decade. China has not been producing enough
oil to make the debt repayments, and so earlier this year China took
over additional control of Sinovensa, and now owns 49% of the joint
venture. The result is that oil production from Sinovensa increased
46% since April. Reuters and S&P Global and Hellenic Shipping and OilPrice.com
****
**** UN prepares Venezuelan refugee crisis, the largest in modern Latin American history
****
The problem of refugees fleeing from Venezuela into neighboring
countries has become so massive that the United Nations refugee agency
has created a Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan (RMRP)
involving 95 organizations in 16 countries to respond to the
humanitarian needs of the refugees and migrants from Venezuela.
Almost 3.3 million Venezuelans have fled into neighboring countries
and beyond. This exodus is already the largest in the modern history
of Latin America and the Caribbean and involves both refugees and
migrants from Venezuela. UNHCR expects that another two million
Venezuelans will flee in 2019, with the result that about 5.4 million
Venezuelans, or 17% of the country's total population, will be living
abroad by the end of 2019.
The RMRP organizations are also asking for $738 million in financing
in hopes of providing assistance to 2.2 million Venezuelans and
500,000 people in the host communities. The United States has
earmarked more than $95 million in aid to Colombia, Brazil and other
host nations to deal with the Venezuelan crisis since fiscal year
2017.
It's interesting to compare Venezuela and North Korea, the only two
major Socialist countries left in the world. Both have devastated
economies and enormous poverty. Both of them are supported by Russia
and China. Both are international pariahs. There are some
differences. Unlike North Korea, Venezuela doesn't have nuclear
weapons and ballistic missiles, and people are permitted to leave the
country without getting shot to death. Miami Herald and UNHCR and Refugee and Migrant Response Plan (RMRP, PDF)
Related articles:
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, Nicolás Maduro,
Manuel Quevedo, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., PDVSA,
Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, Russia, North Korea,
China, Sinovensa, China National Petroleum Corporation, CNPC,
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR,
Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan, RMRP
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Socialist Venezuela's oil output continues to crash -- except for China joint venture
- UN prepares Venezuelan refugee crisis, the largest in modern Latin American history
****
**** Socialist Venezuela's oil output continues to crash -- except for China joint venture
****
Venezuelan migrants travel aboard a truck in Tumbes, Peru, near the Ecuador border, on 1 November (AFP)
Venezuela's economy desperately needs to be able to sell oil in order
to survive. But Venezuela's Socialist presidents Hugo Chávez and
Nicolás Maduro have done what many might consider to be an almost
impossible feat -- turned the country with the largest oil reserves in
the world into a country that can't produce oil. When you see
something like this, it's almost impossible to believe it happened,
but this is always what happens with Socialism. Other "Socialist
paradise" countries, including China, Russia, East Germany, Cuba and
Sweden, have partially or completely turned to free markets as their
economies spiraled into disaster, but only two countries in the world
haven't -- Venezuela and North Korea. And both are economic disasters
as a result.
In Venezuela, Maduro has fulfilled his Socialist dreams by turning the
country's nationalized oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela
S.A. (PDVSA) over to army generals and other political cronies to run,
lest some dirty capitalist make a profit on Venezuela's oil. Well,
Maduro has made sure that nobody is making money on Venezuela's oil,
including Venezuela.
Oil accounts for about 98% of Venezuela's export revenue, and in
November 2017, Maduro put Major General Manuel Quevedo in charge of
PDVSA, in the hope of stopping its collapse.
Quevedo is a Maduro crony but knows nothing about the oil industry.
In July, Quevedo joined his wife, a Catholic priest and a gathering of
oil workers in prayer to ask God to boost oil output. Prayer is a
great management technique, but unfortunately, God wasn't listening
this time. The collapse has continued, and production has dropped 20%
since Quevedo took over, and is now at the lowest level in nearly 70
years.
And now there are reports that Maduro is thinking of firing Quevedo
and replacing him with another army general who has no oil industry
expertise. Ironically, Quevedo is scheduled in January to assume the
rotating presidency of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) for one year.
There is one subsidiary of PDVSA that that has increased oil
production this year. Sinovensa is jointly owned by PDVSA and China
National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), and it accounts for about 10%
of Venezuela's oil output.
China has lent over $50 billion to Venezuela through oil-for-loan
agreements over the past decade. China has not been producing enough
oil to make the debt repayments, and so earlier this year China took
over additional control of Sinovensa, and now owns 49% of the joint
venture. The result is that oil production from Sinovensa increased
46% since April. Reuters and S&P Global and Hellenic Shipping and OilPrice.com
****
**** UN prepares Venezuelan refugee crisis, the largest in modern Latin American history
****
The problem of refugees fleeing from Venezuela into neighboring
countries has become so massive that the United Nations refugee agency
has created a Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan (RMRP)
involving 95 organizations in 16 countries to respond to the
humanitarian needs of the refugees and migrants from Venezuela.
Almost 3.3 million Venezuelans have fled into neighboring countries
and beyond. This exodus is already the largest in the modern history
of Latin America and the Caribbean and involves both refugees and
migrants from Venezuela. UNHCR expects that another two million
Venezuelans will flee in 2019, with the result that about 5.4 million
Venezuelans, or 17% of the country's total population, will be living
abroad by the end of 2019.
The RMRP organizations are also asking for $738 million in financing
in hopes of providing assistance to 2.2 million Venezuelans and
500,000 people in the host communities. The United States has
earmarked more than $95 million in aid to Colombia, Brazil and other
host nations to deal with the Venezuelan crisis since fiscal year
2017.
It's interesting to compare Venezuela and North Korea, the only two
major Socialist countries left in the world. Both have devastated
economies and enormous poverty. Both of them are supported by Russia
and China. Both are international pariahs. There are some
differences. Unlike North Korea, Venezuela doesn't have nuclear
weapons and ballistic missiles, and people are permitted to leave the
country without getting shot to death. Miami Herald and UNHCR and Refugee and Migrant Response Plan (RMRP, PDF)
Related articles:
- Socialist Venezuela oil production in 'free fall' as infrastructure collapses (25-Nov-2018)
- Venezuela's refugees crisis soars, as economic disaster reaches new levels (09-Nov-2018)
- Socialist Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil company near total collapse (21-Apr-2018)
- Russia considers taking on a huge financial burden - Venezuela (05-Oct-2017)
- Hugo Chávez dismantled Venezuela's businesses on purpose to create Socialist Paradise (29-May-2016)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, Nicolás Maduro,
Manuel Quevedo, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., PDVSA,
Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, Russia, North Korea,
China, Sinovensa, China National Petroleum Corporation, CNPC,
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR,
Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan, RMRP
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
