General Discussion

The truth of the matter is that while there is still a lot of oil in Venezuela, it isn't as accessible or cost-effective to drill for it or refine it as the big brains in the current mal-administration like to think. Venezuela's oil infrastructure has deteriorated for decades now and outside of fantasy circles at right-wing political institutes or the irresponsible right-wing media, I don't see that it would be that cost-effective to pump it out. It will cost big bucks (or Euros or whatever) to repair what Chavez and Maduro have allowed to deteriorate and there will need to be a lot of incentive for Big Oil or not-so-big oil field supply companies to repair decades of neglect. Moreover, investing in such repairs might cost more than oil companies are likely to get out of it, particularly with today's oil prices. It might have been if oil went for $100 a barrel back when Buckaroo Bush was in the White House, but today oil is selling for under $60 a barrel and the costs of sinking all that money into Venezuelan oil fields, pipelines, refineries and docks might not be worth it.

I was one of many democrats who thought that invading Iraq was a disaster waiting to happen and that the people who thought it up were criminal fools. I still do, but in hindsight I will give them a very little credit. A very little credit. Buckaroo Bush's posse were oilmen and at least some of them had some idea of petroleum economics. Orange Julius and his retinue, on the other hand, do not. They are not oil men, they do not seem to understand oil economics, and they launched their operation anyway. Both the people of Venezuela and the American people will be paying for this folly for decades to come.