Reply #17: Venezuela does have a lot of heavy crude in the Orinoco Belt... [View All]

[Blue to the bone]

...it's actually heavier than water. And yes, that crude is obviously difficult to handle, transport, refine, and convert to electrical power. Venezuela has developed a product called Orimulsion which is a mix of this crude and water and is used by some power plants in the US and Europe, though some European plants have backed away from it due to pollution concerns.

But, Venezuela has plenty of other crude production that is much lighter in nature.

The 'heavy crude' excuse is just that, an excuse. I think that past Venezuelan presidents were just lazy and relied totally on the US market and did not develop other markets. They were lazy.

Chavez is not lazy and is busy developing markets for Venezuelan crude. Once those agreements are in place and the logistics worked out, he can cut off the US.