Venezuelan oil diplomacy curbed by economic crisis

[Zorro]

The late President Hugo Chavez's dream of leveraging Venezuela's oil wealth to spread revolution across Latin America is crumbling under the weight of an economic crisis that is forcing his hand-picked successor to cut back on generous foreign aid.

Signs of the country's waning influence are becoming more apparent. In early November, Guatemala withdrew from the Petrocaribe oil alliance launched by Chavez, saying it didn't receive the ultra-low financing rates it had been promised by Venezuela when it first sought to join the 18-nation pact in 2008. Also in recent weeks, representatives of Brazil and Colombia have held meetings with their Venezuelan counterparts to collect overdue payment for food, manufactured goods and other imports.

While Venezuela has fallen behind on payments before, the latest cash crunch is more severe, and the economic outlook more uncertain, than any time in 15 years of socialist rule.

The reason is a dependence on oil, which accounts for 95 percent of exports. Although Venezuela sits atop the world's largest reserves, production has steadily declined in recent years. Global prices for crude are also lower as hydraulic fracturing technology boosts supplies in the U.S. at a time that Europe's economic woes and weaker growth in China limit global demand.

http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelan-oil-diplomacy-curbed-economic-crisis-050931869.html

[Socialistlemur]

1. I read oil exports to USA hit a new low

In the latest USA government statistics Venezuela is shown to be exporting less than 800 thousand barrels per day to the USA. This is 40 % of the figure when Chávez took over.