Please give some reasons why any US oil company would want to go to the huge expense of building oil platforms, drilling miles below the sea, dealing with terrible weather and storms of all types, building refineries, dealing with pipelines and shipping ....when other countries just take over your property?
Two comments...
First, It would be a mistake not to take Chavez and his socialist buddies in Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, etc. at their word. They've said that they will nationalize and expropriate foreign oil, gas and mining ventures in their respective countries. And they will. Any oil company dumb enough to remain in Venezuela as a "junior partner", will find that after it's been tapped out for it's technical expertise, it will be unceremoniously dumped.
Second, the US government (Democrat controlled congress) is preparing legislation to screw our own oil companies by changing the terms of prior leases and raising their tax burdens, while at the same time, denying these companies the ability to drill in the few domestic areas that might still contain substantial amounts of oil and gas (offshore Atlantic and Pacific and ANWR).
One more, throw in all the greenie global warming hysteria and the attendant stupid political posturing (see Governor Arnold for one example), and the writing's on the wall... |
