Venezuela in danger
Venezuela is in danger. Because, just as I’ve been saying for at least two years, a recent report in the Los Angeles Times states that “in 2011 an independent company hired by Washington made a wrong estimate of the technically recoverable oil in the nation’s largest shale field, situated in Monterey, Calif., which holds about two thirds of the nation’s reserves of shale oil.”
According to that estimate, some 13.7 billion barrels of crude could be extracted. However, a recent report says that the amount won’t be greater than 600 million barrels, i.e., 96 percent below the expectations. That, according to the specialized publication Business Insider, is the equivalent of the total oil reserves of Bolivia.
That wrong estimate in 2011 had been described as the hope to reduce the United States’ need for foreign-oil imports, said the Los Angeles Times. And the amount now reported is insignificant, if you consider that it could only cover the nation’s energy needs for only 33 days.
From the above emerge four initial conclusions:
(1) The United States’ energy dependence will continue to be very high, and perhaps growing, as domestic demand evolves, and this will reinforce the empire’s bellicose tendencies to try to ensure that it gets the oil it needs by every means possible.
Let us not forget that the States’ military interventions in third countries were basically caused by oil and the alleged threats to “national security” posed by “hostile” governments — which, in reality, were respectable governments that were not willing to sacrifice their national self-determination.
(2) The plans to destroy the OPEC by using domestic oil will have to be shelved for a long time, maybe forever, which constitutes a harsh setback for the foreign policy of the United States.
(3) In view of the above, the White House will redouble its seditious and putschist offensive against Bolivarian Venezuela, providing logistical, financial, organizational and media support for its pawns on the field, who are presented as “the peaceful opposition,” whereas in reality they are mercenaries on the empire’s payroll with the mission of undermining the constitutional order and provoking the fall of the Bolivarian government.
Significant fact: Of the hundreds of vandals arrested by the authorities, students constitute barely 20 percent; an equal proportion consists of foreigners, some of whom don’t even speak Spanish. In view of the news published by the Los Angeles Times, we can expect an increase in the destabilizing pressure orchestrated from Washington.
(4) The boasts by Obama and Kerry, to the effect that the U.S. will supply oil and gas to Ukraine to draw that country into NATO and the European Union, have been reduced to mere boasts that lack substance and have no practical effect, other than an attempt to deceive naive observers.
Unfortunately for Washington, oil and gas are found with increasing frequency in countries that are not willing to bow to the mandates from the White House. Therefore, its economic levers to operate in Ukraine are extremely weak.
More information in: http://actualidad.rt.com/economia/view/129021-sueno-eeuu-independencia-energetica
(Taken from the author’s biography in Facebook.)
