South America, Loss Of A Continent

[Terri]

By E. Ralph Hostetter
May 18, 2007

Over the years the United States has fallen out of favor with one or another country within a continent. But principally to lose favor with an entire continent would seem a difficult task at best, until we take a closer look at South America.

The seeds of discontent, one could say, have been growing and wilting, on that continent, over the centuries. I used to joke about the stability of South American governments by referring to their longevity in RPMs, revolutions per minute. Usually these disturbances occurred on a country-by-country basis and the United States would adjust its foreign policy to meet the situation. Something quite different has been developing over the recent years, perhaps caused partially by the preoccupation of the United States of America in the Middle East.

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[Old Man]

In another thread on this BillyBigRigger stated.

For starters Venezuela oil reserves are about 80 billion barrels out of the world total of about 1.3 trillion barrels or about 6%. Only an idiot would believe that Venezuela now controls 3/4 of the world's oil reserves. This guy is obviously an idiot.

I think he is referring to heavy oils that are becoming more popular with new refiners who are geared for it.

Heavy oils, which can be pumped and refined just like conventional petroleum except that they are thicker and have more sulfur and heavy metal contamination, necessitating more extensive refining. Venezuela's Orinoco heavy oil belt is the best known example of this kind of unconventional reserve. Estimated reserves: 1.2 trillion barrels.
snip------------------
As a member of OPEC, Venezuela already has a prominent position on the proven reserve charts, with 47 to 76 billion barrels of proven reserves, according to oil industry / DOE estimates.The USGS puts Venezuelan reserves around the same level, at 48 identified and 110 ultimately recoverable. And yet Venezuela itself claims 1.2 trillion (trillion, with a T) barrels of unconventional oil reserves in the supergiant heavy oil field stretching from the mouth of the Orinoco River near Trinidad down the east side of the Andes mountains. (Arcaya, 2001) The oil is located in a geosynclinal trough that some geologists belive may be continuous along the entire continent through the Falkland Islands off the coast of Argentina. Only parts of the heavy oil field have been fully explored, but those parts have been estimated at some three to four trillion barrels of heavy oil in place, with perhaps one third recoverable using current technology.

Source
I doubt though that with Venezuela's form of government, he will be very successful at tapping all that wealth. Chavez is going to sell uranium to Iran, is building a million man army (he says) with Russia suppling the weapons and Iran missiles and China may be involved too. The other nations joining him are joining more out of fear, I believe than loyalty. CAFTA was one way we hoped to block some of this. CAFTA was more of a treaty than a trade agreement and was hoped to produce loyalty to the U.S.

When you use 25% of the oil in the world and your reserves are less than 2% anyone that says such a ridiculous thing again is an absolute idiot.

No way at $40 a barrel but at above $50 a barrel we do have some potential. We now have the technology to go after the 1.5 to 3 trillion barrels of recoverable oil we have in the Western States that Sen. Hatch wants developed. That is 200 to 400 years of oil at the current demand rate.

Hatch urges use of Utah's tar sands and oil shale

He says state contains up to 3 trillion barrels of oil
By Natalie Clemens
Deseret Morning News

"We have more recoverable oil in Utah and Colorado than in the Middle East," Hatch said in a July 26 press release. "Yet Utah imports nearly one-fourth of its oil from Canada tar sands, even though we have a larger tar sands resource in the state that until now has remained undeveloped."

Source I think he is overly optimistic, not on the quantity but on recoverability. Oil shale is much more difficult to make productive than oil sands and some methods require a lot of natural gas, another thing we aren't currently producing enough of. Possibly with SAGD or Electrode methods, we can get some of it. Utah is 70% government land so it should have a lot available for leasing.

Another site shows a map of most of the Western States with oil shale

America's oil shale reserves are enormous, totaling at least 1.5 trillion barrels of oil. That's five times the reserves of Saudi Arabia! And yet, no one is producing commercial quantities of oil from these vast deposits. All that oil is still sitting right where God left it, buried under the vast landscapes of Colorado and Wyoming.

Obviously, there are some very real obstacles to oil production from shale. After all, if it was such a good thing, we'd be doing it already, right? "Oil shale is the fuel of the future, and always will be," goes a popular saying in Western Colorado.

Source

Of course, the greatest harm Venezuela and Iran can hurt us is to sell oil in Euros.

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez is directing a growing share of the country's oil profits into euros as the dollar and crude prices fall.

The dollar, down 9.5 percent against the euro this year, may face more pressure in 2007 because Venezuela and oil producers from the United Arab Emirates to Indonesia plan to funnel more money into the single European currency.

Bank Indonesia is boosting euro holdings,

Source

His move to sell to China and not sell to us may seem small but, it would mean that with Mexico's field drying up that we would have to ship the oil from other locations like Nigeria that is constantly under attack.

Chavez can hurt the U.S. with just his taking oil from us and selling it to China and by moving the sale to Euros.

Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed 17 bilateral agreements and also discussed cooperation in mining, oil and gas projects, as well as technological partnership.

Last month, Mr. Chavez visited China, where he signed agreements with Chinese President Hu Jintao dealing with economic cooperation and joint oil field exploration

Source

So, here we have Venezuela aligned with Russia, China, Iran, Cuba and the nations around it.

War? I think not. Economic problems for the U.S.? I think so.

Al-Qaeda, Iran, Venezuela have found our Achilles heel and it is our currency and our economy (debt based spending economy).

[Terri]

Venezuela and Peak Oil: New Estimate of Oil Reserves Makes Venezuela the Grandest of Grand Prizes for the US

<snip>

From what we know for sure plus what we think we may know about Venezuelan "total" oil reserves, I suggest the reader first take a seat and buckle up. In previous articles, I reported Venezuela may have reserves of about 350 billion barrels if all their known heavy and light crude are counted. That total is far more than is now officially recognized by OPEC which means unofficially the country has greater reserves than Saudi Arabia by that number alone.

But wait, there's more, a lot more. Palast reports a US Energy Department expert believes Venezuela holds 90% of the world's super-heavy tar oil reserves - an estimated total of 1,360,000,000,000 (1.36 trillion) barrels. Let me repeat that - 1.36 trillion barrels. That alone is more oil than Hubbert believed 50 years ago lay under the entire planet.

[Old Man]

There are some financial sites calling for oil prices to plummet. Maybe this is why. It may also be why we have been so anxious to have allies in South America that will stand up to Chavez.

He is aligning with all the enemies of the U.S. and they will control the value of the dollar as long as oil sales in dollars is what creates the demand for the dollar.

That is another reason trade has been so important. Our buying of imports mean those nations get dollars that they have to spend and buying our debt has been one the leading ways they spend those dollars. By lending us $2 billion a day, they fund our deficit spending.

However, having Chavez and Iran and Russia, and China in control of the bank we draw from is very threatening to our economy and standard of living. It would cost them billions but, they could literally bring us down by simply stopping the loans to us. This may be why many of the nations of the world are seeking other ways to spend those dollars they get from us when we purchase there exports.

People who don't think Iran, Russia, Venezuela, China, and other places aren't a threat just because they don't have a huge military threat lined up, are overlook the weapon we brought Russia down with, economic weapons. None of them, by themselves may be that much of a threat but together, controlling the bank we borrow from, they can be a terrible threat.

[RealDeal]

Within the last week, Chavez announced two dramatic changes in governmental policies. He notified the world's largest oil companies, BP PLC, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Exxon Mobil Corp., France's Total SA and Norway's Statoil SA, to turn over their Venezuelan oil assets valued at $30 billion to Petroleos de Venezuela SA, Venezuela's state oil company, meaning eventual confiscation.

Isn't this what the ME countries did "back in the day"? Basically booting out the American companies that had found the oil?

In addition, he announced he would formally pull Venezuela out of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Something we should have done years ago when we were THE economic champions. Now, apparently, it is so convoluded and we are so interdependent, it can't be done without huge financial consequences.

This costly loss of Western and capitalistic influence in South America is largely due to two closely related subjects: One is oil itself. The other is the Congress of the United States, which should have provided full energy independence for the United States but, instead, collapsed in the face of opposition from the far left, the anti-capitalist Greens, and worse.

-emphasis/underscore mine-

And it won't be getting better any time soon with our current majority in place.

It is America's need for oil that provides the lightning rod for our enemies.

And the money to build up their militaries/terrorists to use against US!!