Venezuela raises oil drilling tax from 1% to 16.6%

Hugo Chavez has announced he has increased oil royalties significantly.
I guess we'll see an increase in Anti-Chavez propaganda soon.
He used a dangerous word in his announcement, 'nationalization'. That word had led to the downfall of many leaders in the world.
Perhaps they'll send more money from the NED to Chavez opponents as they did before the 2002 Coup.

Reuters
"I have decided to use my executive powers to increase the exploitation tax (in the Orinoco ventures) .... From today, the tax will be 16.6 percent," Chavez said, speaking on his weekly "Hello President" television and radio show.

The latest measure affects upgrading projects in the Orinoco region which produce about 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) and involve a number of international oil companies.

The existing ventures are Hamaca and Cerro Negro with Exxon Mobil Corp., Sincor with France's TotalFinaElf and Norway's Statoil and Petrozuata with ConocoPhillips.

These Orinoco heavy oil projects were signed under preferential terms when Venezuela opened its growing oil industry to wider foreign investment in the early 1990s.

Chavez, a former paratrooper first elected in 1998, said his government had moved to restore genuine national control over state oil firm PDVSA, which he said had been "kidnapped" by foreign oil interests over three decades until 2002...

...Announcing the oil tax increase from the eastern oil port of Puerto La Cruz, Chavez said: "Today, we are starting the second phase of the true nationalization of PDVSA and of Venezuela's oil, aiming for full petroleum sovereignty."

Apparently, the lower tax was introduced in the mid-nineties by the previous government to attract foreign investment. They are now rolling back the tax to the previous level.

I was just going to put this up.... but you beat me to it [/


Man thats one big middle finger towards washington!

Of course there are execs fuming at this.. how dare poor people demand money from us etc. etc.


What are they going to do to this guy? Sorry what haven't they done to this guy yet?

They have even pulled the old Nicaragua trick out of the hat. December '03 i heard a report that Columbain marxists were being supplied across the Venezuelan border...

THer ewas a coup attempt that failed coz chavez got wind of it though some opec buddy.

The list goes on and on...

I'll part with the immortal words from a US spokes person: "JUST BEACUSE YOU WIN A MAJORITY OF THE VOTE DOESN'T MAKE YOUR GOVERNMENT IEGITIMATE."

Brent Crude Oil $ 50.31

West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil $ 53.64

Oil going up again! Over a dollar on each today.

What is Venezuela's contribution to north american oil reserves though? It couldn't be as much as the Saudi's, Iraqi or even western Canada. THe thing I really don't get is why wouldn't they go to canada out west either in Alberta or Manitoba i cant remember which one, there is plenty of oil there, but it'll cost more to get out, but at the rate of oil prices these days it could be a quicker fix to make gas reasonable now.

I have to give it to this man and his country, he got bigggg cojones,

He is not afraid of big monster American

I hope he does not find himself blown to pieces in "terrorist" attack to his persona.

Originally posted by fusion360
What is Venezuela's contribution to north american oil reserves though? It couldn't be as much as the Saudi's, Iraqi or even western Canada.

It's pretty close.

Census.gov

Cumulative 2003 crude oil imports

Venezuela 505,498,000 barrels
Canada 546,695,000 barrels
Saudi Arabia 632,770,000 barrels

I think the supply is there. Canada has hundreds of millions of barrels untapped because of enviromentalist action that dont want to disturb atlantic canada or the tar sands out west. Also Bush wanted thse Oil reserves but Jean Chretein threatened to give the americans a huge oil export tax.

www.findarticles.com...

THe oil is there, its just how much do you wanna pay for it.

[edit on 11-10-2004 by fusion360]

That article says Alberta has 300 million barrels.
That's not much.

Canada exported over 500 million barrels just last year to the US.

That doesn't exceed the amount that Saudi Arabia has.

You may want to check the EIA.DOE.gov for better estimates as to how much oil is out there.

[edit on 11-10-2004 by AceOfBase]

hmm you bring a good point, so where's the untapped oil that has been said to last us through the 21st century, same old places as in the Saudi's and Mexicans? The Mexicans are said to be running out or something? Im doing searches everywhere to find out more info, nothing really comes up thats useful other then the site you recommended.

Here's what the EIA says:

EIA.DOE.gov
Mexico, with 24 billion barrels, has the largest conventional proved crude oil reserves in North America, followed by the United States (22 billion barrels) and Canada (4.4 billion barrels). In addition, Canada has vast reserves of oil sands, of which about 308 billion barrels are economically recoverable


Most of Canada's reserves are Oil Sands.

Here's an article on Oil Sands in Canada.

USAtoday
Geologists joke that drawing a barrel of oil from the Saudi desert is as easy as poking a straw in the ground. The Saudis pump oil at a cost to them of $2 to $3 a barrel and comfortably make money even if global futures prices crash to $10 a barrel.

Not so in the molasses-like sands of Alberta. Here, costs range from $8.50 to $12 a barrel, and getting that barrel requires substantial manpower, technology and energy. After adding capital costs, shipping and depreciation, sands producers need per-barrel global prices above the $18-to-$23 level.

I think the last article you posted may have just gotten the number wrong.
It probably should have been Billion with a B instead of Million with an M.

I was wondering because with all these statistics 300 million wasn't that much, considering Canada consumes 2.2 million a day.

I just don't see that with the Venezuelan tax increase they could increase production coming out of mexico, unless they are already at full capacity or something, and with a Minority government in Canada and an election that could occur at any time, a possible conservative government would open up the sand fields to american production, might be more expensive to get out, but the conservatives would probably lower the taxes to make the americans buddies again.

Will we see a shift from French bashing to Venezuelan bashing? It's seems popular to vilify anyone who doesn't agree with the US. Strange. It's my right not to agree with a fellow American. If other countries do it, they are the enemy.

Why can't we apply the same rights we fight and die for, to other people? The freedom of speech and ideas?

I would not be surprised if the venezuela leader is call "member of the axis of evil"

well I applaud the actions of Chavez. This money will go to helping the people instead of the previous government which helped foreign multi-nationals exploit the workers.

thanks,
drfunk

What amazes me is that no one has implicated President Bush as conspiring with the Venezuelan government to raise the taxes 1660%.

When John Kerry says that Bush is conspiring with Chavez, it'll be the "truth" and everyone will jump on the band wagon.