George Kraus wrote:Venezuela has assumed control (nationalized) of the last major oil field in their country, the oil companies who were the owners are now minority owners with Venezuela being the majority owner.
Venezuela is number 9 on the oil producing countries list and 10 percent of U.S. imports come from there.
I would guess this is the reason for the recent spike. I would have to guess the question now is, who will they sell their oil to? Any guesses?
Most of our foreign oil comes from countries where the industry is government controled, so the Venezuela situation is not new to the oil industry. Chavez is a blowhard, but he's pretty pragmatic, so I would imagine the oil companies will be able to do a deal with him. Most already have deals pretty much worked out. A few companies are still negotiating.
The recent spike seems to have more to do with lower than expected inventories of finished produt (ie: gasoline) as we are heading into summer, the peak driving season.