The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand

In advance of the European Union – Latin America and Caribbean summit, the Portuguese prime minister, José Sócrates, visited Venezuela. During two days, more than twenty economic agreements were celebrated between the two countries, where energy had a major role.

Among the entourage where representatives of some of the largest companies operating in Portugal, with the objective of firming protocols in the vein of “oil for goods”, towards which the Venezuelan executive has been showing great openness.

Late last week, ExxonMobil won a court order to freeze PDVSA (the Venezuelan national oil company) assets overseas, up to a value of $12 billion, as part of a dispute over oil fields in the country that Venezuela has nationalised, but for which Exxon has refused to accept the compesantion proposed by the Venezuelans. 6 oil companies are in that situation, and 4 of them accepted Chavez's terms, Conoco being the other holdout with Exxon.

Today, Chavez hit back, by threatening to cut off oil deliveries to the USA

"If you freeze us, if you really manage to freeze us, if you damage us, then we will hurt you. Do you know how? We are not going to send oil to the United States," Chavez said on his weekly TV show.

* With a Note on Bolivia

Update [2006-5-27 19:2:44 by Dave]: Gulf News reports yesterday PDVSA expects 3.4m bpd output

"We should be closing the year with a production ... of 3.4 million barrels per day," Vierma told reporters. "The average production for this month has been almost 3.3 million barrels per day."

The US Department of Energy and Wall Street analysts say Venezuela's total oil production is only around 2.6 million bpd.

It's time to check in with Venezuela and some other events in South America as Hugo's Bolivarian Revolution goes forward. Apparently, he strives to be Fidel Castro only with oil and without the beard.

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

There's lot to report on--oil shenanigans in Venezuela, nationalization of the oil & gas industry in Bolivia, Hugo's deals with China and the escalating conflict between Hugo and the United States.

I doubt they did it in on purpose, but the title "Beating the Oil Drums of War-Part I" is just precious. [editor's note, by Prof. Goose]and we also forgot to mention this post over at econbrowser. JDH, always a good read.

Here's a Guardian article on Hugo Chávez and his posturing to "launch a bid to transform the global politics of oil by seeking a deal with consumer countries which would lock in a price of $50 a barrel."

That's right.  I said "lock in."

Well winter has finally arrived in the Northeast after a mostly unseasonablly warm October and November and while heating and natural gas prices have come down since Katrina and Rita, the costs of home heating will probably set new records this year. So what can you do aside from just turning the thermostat down? Get an energy audit.

I read in Crain's (subscription req'd) that New York State is offering energy audits and subsidized loans for homeowners to make home improvements that save energy. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has lots of great tips for reducing energy bills from heating or electric (including compact fluorescent lighting).
The payback on many of these investments can be less than 5 years and you can even apply the $200 fee from the energy audit to improvements suggested in the write-up.