Chavez talks....Petro-Canada walks.

[bush_cheney2004]

Seems that those Yankee oil imperialists included Petro-Canada, now on the outside looking in along with Conoco and Exxon-Mobil. Chavez may have to call in the Russians or Chinese!

Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president, announced the state takeover of majority control of operations in the Orinoco belt this year, along with the nationalisation of Venezuela’s largest electricity and telephone companies.

Mr Ramirez, who is also the president of PdVSA, said Chevron, Total, BP and Statoil had said they would sign agreements allowing them to continue operating in the area, which can produce 600,000 barrels of oil a day, a quarter of Venezuela’s output.

However, analysts said that both ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which was the most exposed of the private companies in the Orinoco, refused to accept minority positions in the ventures for compensation that they considered to be below market value. The companies appeared still to be in talks with Venezuela over the handover.

Petro-Canada also pulled out of the country, saying: “We have decided not to migrate to the new commercial structure, so our working interest passes to the Venezuelan government.”

Analysts said the country needed the expertise of private companies. Venezuela’s oil industry has stagnated in recent years, with production falling 10 per cent during the past decade.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/776105b8-2417-11dc...0b5df10621.html

[B. Max]

He'll need the Russians or Chinese for a place to hide after the people finally wake up and chase him out of the country.

[August1991]

Bush/Cheney, good find. (Is Petro-Canada a tool of the Bushistas?)

BTW, the Ontario Teacher's Pension Fund and the BC Teacher's Fund have significant holdings in Petro-Canada.

Maybe these pension funds should make known the political views of their contributors. Put up or shut up. (Rabble and enmasse, take note.)

[scribblet]

Bush/Cheney, good find. (Is Petro-Canada a tool of the Bushistas?)

BTW, the Ontario Teacher's Pension Fund and the BC Teacher's Fund have significant holdings in Petro-Canada.

Maybe these pension funds should make known the political views of their contributors. Put up or shut up. (Rabble and enmasse, take note.)

Good one !!

[buffycat]

PETRO Canada = Pierre Elliot Trudeau Ripped Off Canada.

Chavez is trying to do something different, out of line with the Big Oil cartels and the WB, IMF. Seems they are his only vicitms... if you can call Big Oil a 'victim'. (cough).

[B. Max]

PETRO Canada = Pierre Elliot Trudeau Ripped Off Canada.

Chavez is trying to do something different, out of line with the Big Oil cartels and the WB, IMF. Seems they are his only vicitms... if you can call Big Oil a 'victim'. (cough).

Only someone who doesn't know what they are talking about will cough.

[Argus]

He'll need the Russians or Chinese for a place to hide after the people finally wake up and chase him out of the country.

The people supporting him are largely an ignorant rabble, and he'll always find some "other" to blame, even as Zimbabwe's Mugabe has done.

[CLRV]

So over 60% of the Venezuelan electorate are "ignorant rabble". What a typically North American thing to say; full of arrogance, elitism and disinformation.

Boo f*cking hoo for PetroCan and all the other oil companies on this. Amazing how Chavez continues to be villified for making his country's wealth work for his country's people, especially considering how many vicious dictators there are worldwide grinding their people underfoot for the *benefit* of those same agencies while receiving virtually no press coverage (or notice for that matter) from the "first" world. Profiteers posing as bleeding hearts. What a self-serving spectacle.

Speaking of which, the publicizing of pension fund information is nothing but a cheap shot launched by ideologues intent on union-busting. The OTPP's "significant investment" of 2.2 corporate shares per unit over $100 million should probably be seen in context against 285.5 for toll road giant Macquarie Infrastructure Group, 10.5 for WestJet and a whopping 42.7 for those evil wiener pushers Maple Leaf Foods Inc. How do these teachers sleep at night.

Because only teachers should have clean hands when it comes to pension funds. How many other people keep track of every individual investment made in their name, let alone have it published regularly for political points? Do you question your bank on it's investment policies before you accept that interest payment on your savings account? This is why we have money managers in the first place. Most of us would not make a profit on such financial speculation, so we leave it to the experts.

This leaves aside the obvious claptrap about "the political views of their contributors". Believe it or not, there are plenty of conservative teachers out there. It is by no means a foregone conclusion that a majority of the membership would disapprove of this list.

[CLRV]

Oh, just as an afterthought.

I wonder how many free market conservatives know that it was the WTO that *forced* the USA rewrite their own environmental regulation in order to accommodate Venezuela's dirtier oil, which did not meet the standards set by the Clean Air Act? America didn't WANT to buy that oil in the first place, but now they are (what's the standard rhetoric? oh yeah) supporting a tinpot dictator and his ignorant rabble.

So this is all a big socialist plot, is it?

[Moxie]

Well the Globe and Rail reported today the socialist/left/left hero is importing 100,000 barrels of oil to supply his own country-from Russia. LOL the second largest producer of oil can't even keep the production up to meet supply and demand. He's a moron that can't even find qualified people to run his socialist utopia, soon the people will be gasless and starving. Hail socialism and it's idiot followers.

[B. Max]

He's a moron that can't even find qualified people to run his socialist utopia, soon the people will be gasless and starving. Hail socialism and it's idiot followers.

Yeah and guess who they will want to put the tap on for an aid package. Same old same old.

[ScottSA]

Boo f*cking hoo for PetroCan and all the other oil companies on this. Amazing how Chavez continues to be villified for making his country's wealth work for his country's people, especially considering how many vicious dictators there are worldwide grinding their people underfoot for the *benefit* of those same agencies while receiving virtually no press coverage (or notice for that matter) from the "first" world. Profiteers posing as bleeding hearts. What a self-serving spectacle.

You may not have noticed, but he's not doing a very good job of "making his country's wealth work for his country's people." Something lefties never seem to quite grasp is the fact that wealth is created, and is not just a big static pile of gold in a zero sum game. All the rhetoric that comes out of the NDP at election time, and from the starry eyed revolutionaries of all stripes has no basic grounding in reality. "Make the rich pay" sounds great, but the trouble of course is that what it means in praxis is "curb production and make everyone pay." Nationalizing industry is a great idea on paper, but once you do it, and chase all the expertise out the door, you have a huge noisy pile of machinery that's pretty much good for nothing. Having oil is not the same as getting it out of the ground and selling it. Oh, and nationalizing industry is robbery.

[Moxie]

He's a moron that can't even find qualified people to run his socialist utopia, soon the people will be gasless and starving. Hail socialism and it's idiot followers.

Yeah and guess who they will want to put the tap on for an aid package. Same old same old.

Yep we the taxpayer will be expected to bail out his sorry commie ass, we are still giving Communist China millions in aide each year. Why no one knows, god knows it's not to aide them in quality control regarding food and other edible stuff. Then again maybe we are paying them in aide and they thank us by poisoning our food chain.