Venezuela blames oil woes on 'sabotage'

[Zorro]

Venezuela’s oil industry is being sabotaged, the general newly installed as the crisis-hit country's oil minister and head of state crude giant PDVSA said Thursday.

"We have managed to arrest 20 people involved in a plan to sabotage production," Manuel Quevedo told reporters at a meeting of OPEC in Vienna.

"This sabotage plan is aimed at achieving a repeat of 2002-3 when there was an attempted coup against (Hugo) Chavez," the former president, Quevedo said.

"This time there is a whole plan to hit (oil) production."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-blames-oil-woes-sabotage-003439607.html

The article reports that Venezuela is considering stopping crude oil sales to the US. That'll show us!

[GatoGordo]

1. Its not sabotage. Its failed upkeep.

Chavez and Maduro were willfully ignorant about what it takes to keep pumping thick, tarry oil out of the ground. Equipment wears out. Technical know-how is important. They ran off all the Venezuelan technicians and engineers who knew anything about oil. And he replaced them with loyal Chavistas.

Chavismo decided to spend like a drunken sailor on innumerable "public works projects" (most unfinished due to corruption, graft) and didn't reinvest a dime in their cash cow. The entire oil infrastructure is in shambles. That the Amuay refinery is at 25% of capacity is sabotage? Laughable.

And these two PdVSA loyal Chavistas who have recently been named as conspirators against El Pueblo? On the job for only 3 months, and Maduro is blaming them for 18 years of malfeasance.

FWIW, the US is about the only place economically feasible to refine their thick, sour oil. They can't even pump it without US petrochemicals (napthalene) or Light Brent to move it short distances.