Oil-rich Venezuela is now importing U.S. oil
http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/03/news/economy/venezuela-imports-american-oil/index.html
Venezuela has more oil than any other country on the planet. But it just bought a bunch of American crude.
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The fact that Venezuela is importing American oil is raising eyebrows because Venezuela has 298 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, according to the Energy Information Administration. That's more than Saudi Arabia, Russia or Iran and eight times the reserves of the United States.
But the oil extracted in Venezuela is very heavy and hard to refine and then sell to other countries. Venezuela needs to first mix its heavy oil with lighter types of crude to balance out the quality, according to Nilofar Saidi, an oil market analyst at ClipperData.
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Venezuela is getting crushed by low oil prices. Its economy greatly depends on oil exports to drive growth. As oil prices have plunged in the past two years, so has Venezuela's economy, which is now in a severe recession. It's arguably the worst economy in the world.