Troops bearing insignia associated with Russia's Wagner Group have been observed among Venezuelan security forces during protests following the July ...
Venezuela’s oil reserves are the last that should ever be pumped out of the ground in the world. It is thick sludge like bitumen, full of heavy metals and hard to extract and process because it has lots of Sulphur, so it’s corrosive. It is almost as bad as burning coal and produces less high-value light hydrocarbons like gasoline and more bunker fuel that can only be used in tankers and industry…which are heavy polluters.
I’m almost tempted to say that it would be better for those reserves to be under the control of a backwards dictator who won’t be able to develop them or privatize them, but China has its eyes on exploiting those reserves too, not just the US, so even that unethical argument is moot.
Isn’t the whole point that oil is easy for anyone to exploit, including backwards dictators? Unlike say, semiconductor manufacture which requires complex processes and therefore a functioning society
Not always, Venezuelan oil requires high investment and gives low return (compared with other reserves), so it requires a competent government who can keep a level of education/safety and/or can let expertise flow in and set up infrastructure with an expectation that they will get a long term return. At this rate neither are going to happen and Venezuela is fucked unless China goes all in (I don’t think China is going to go all in).
This former minister explains that the reasons the military are backing Maduro are mainly financial, not political https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UtcbV9HuHq8 Venezuela is essentially bankrupt and they can’t default on debt to China without getting into bigger problems or becoming fully dependent on the IMF/US.
Yeah. Venezuela has a TON of oil which makes it of interest to anyone in the world who likes to go around fuckin with people and taking their stuff.
Venezuela’s oil reserves are the last that should ever be pumped out of the ground in the world. It is thick sludge like bitumen, full of heavy metals and hard to extract and process because it has lots of Sulphur, so it’s corrosive. It is almost as bad as burning coal and produces less high-value light hydrocarbons like gasoline and more bunker fuel that can only be used in tankers and industry…which are heavy polluters.
I’m almost tempted to say that it would be better for those reserves to be under the control of a backwards dictator who won’t be able to develop them or privatize them, but China has its eyes on exploiting those reserves too, not just the US, so even that unethical argument is moot.
Isn’t the whole point that oil is easy for anyone to exploit, including backwards dictators? Unlike say, semiconductor manufacture which requires complex processes and therefore a functioning society
Not always, Venezuelan oil requires high investment and gives low return (compared with other reserves), so it requires a competent government who can keep a level of education/safety and/or can let expertise flow in and set up infrastructure with an expectation that they will get a long term return. At this rate neither are going to happen and Venezuela is fucked unless China goes all in (I don’t think China is going to go all in).
This former minister explains that the reasons the military are backing Maduro are mainly financial, not political https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UtcbV9HuHq8 Venezuela is essentially bankrupt and they can’t default on debt to China without getting into bigger problems or becoming fully dependent on the IMF/US.