As Venezuelan deliveries wane, allies tap traders for pricey fuel

[Zorro]

Venezuela's shipments of crude oil and fuel to its allies have fallen to a five-year low as a weak economy hits its ability to uphold accords that former President Hugo Chavez struck to lower energy costs for friends and expand his diplomatic clout.

Total shipments under cooperation deals with Latin American and Caribbean countries dropped 11 percent in 2013 to 243,000 barrels per day (bpd), the lowest level since 2007, according to recent data from Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA.

Several factors are behind the decline: lower oil output and weak economic growth at home, a domestic refinery network that has not fully recovered from a severe accident in 2012, and financing agreements with China that divert much of the OPEC nation's oil production to Asia.

Some of the beneficiaries of the cheap oil are now being forced to turn to other sources.

http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelan-deliveries-wane-allies-tap-traders-pricey-fuel-222812666.html

[MADem]

1. Uh oh...Maduro's loyal friends might not be so loyal.....

[Zorro]

2. Yet Cuba and Nicaragua continue to get their full allocations

I guess all allies are equal, but some allies are more equal than others.

[MADem]

3. Well, Cuba killed Chavez with their incompetent medicine....and THEY picked Maduro over Cabello!

Maduro the (Ooops, that was Puerto Rican) Cuban flag fondler was always in Havana's pocket. Diosdado may be corrupt as Maduro, but he's certainly more pragmatic.

Hugo might have lived had he admitted "shit, I've got cancer" and gone straight to Brasil, where they have competent cancer care and brilliant surgeons...! But hey, in Cuba, it's "free!" And no one talks! And he sure believed their bullshit when they told him a cure was just around the corner. In the meantime, they kept scooping out his guts while a baseball of cancer kept growing back...and back...and back....and spread throughout his system.

I wonder, have his family left the peeling Presidential palace yet...?

[Zorro]

4. Last I heard

the gals were still partying hard at the Presidential palace...

What an absolute schmuck Maduro is.