It’s come to this: Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro is now sending a good chunk of the nation’s gold to Iran in exchange for help propping up the decrepit oil industry.

At least nine tons of gold, worth about $500 million, flew off to Iran last month, government officials told Bloomberg News. That leaves the crisis-plagued nation with a scant $6.2 billion in hard-currency assets, the lowest amount in three decades.

For decades, Venezuela’s oil industry thrived. But under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, the government took over — and began milking it for fast cash while firing expert workers and managers and slashing spending on maintenance, repairs, and other vital capital investment.

As a result, everything’s breaking down and output has crashed — even as global oil prices have also collapsed during the pandemic, further squeezing revenues.

Because Maduro won’t allow safe private investment, he has to turn to his “allies” in Tehran — except the regime there insists on hard payment for its expertise. No honor among thieves, y’know.

Nor is oil the only industry in collapse: Reliable electricity, health care, and even food are increasingly rare in Venezuela thanks to the Chávez-Maduro regime’s “Bolivarian socialism.”

For years, Sen. Bernie Sanders and lefties around the globe cheered the Chávez-Maduro socialist approach to industry and the economy. But now those economics are forcing Maduro to loot his country’s last reserves to buy help from a pack of theocratic terrorists.

Source: https://nypost.com/2020/05/03/venezuelas-sending-its-gold-reserves-to-iran-where-socialism-leads/

The post Venezuela’s sending its gold reserves to Iran: This is where socialism leads first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

(Bloomberg) — A Chinese oil contractor halted work on an expansion project in Venezuela because it hasn’t been paid, underscoring the difficulties for the Nicolas Maduro regime even at energy ventures backed by allies.

China Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corporation, an affiliate of government-run China National Petroleum Corp., notified the Sinovensa joint venture it has suspended work to expand a crude blending facility by 57% to 165,000 barrels a day, according to a document seen by Bloomberg and a person familiar with the matter.

That’s in contrast to comments from state-controlled Petroleos de Venezuela SA last month announcing a second expansion to take output to 230,000 barrels a day at the project, which is jointly owned by PDVSA and CNPC — China’s biggest energy company.

PDVSA declined to comment. A representative at the press office of CNPC didn’t answer two calls or immediately reply to text messages seeking comment.

The halt is another blow for Venezuela, which is increasingly reliant on Russian and Chinese oil companies to prop up an industry struggling against an economic blockade by Donald Trump’s administration. Chevron Corp. and four U.S. oilfield service companies will stop work in the Latin American nation at the end of October unless sanctions waivers are extended, potentially affecting nearly half the drilling rigs operating in the country.

A project manager at HQC — as the Chinese contractor is known — said in a notification to Sinovensa it was owed more than $52 million in invoices dating back to 2018, and that it was suspending activities from Sept. 3. The JV is a key project in Venezuela’s Orinoco region that boasts the largest oil reserves on the planet and currently accounts for about half of the country’s remaining production.

To contact the reporters on this story: Patricia Laya in Caracas at playa2@bloomberg.net; Peter Millard in Rio de Janeiro at pmillard1@bloomberg.net; Lucia Kassai in Houston at lkassai@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tina Davis at tinadavis@bloomberg.net, Pratish Narayanan, David Marino

Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/venezuela-s-oil-woes-deepen-as-chinese-contractor-halts-work-1.1311911

The post Venezuela’s Oil Woes Deepen as Chinese Contractor Halts Work first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.