Empty threats

11 February 2008 By Cyrus Sanati

The Venezuelan strongman threatened to cut oil exports to the US amid his row with Exxon. In the short term, an embargo would be worrisome. But the US could eventually tap supply elsewhere, whereas there are few other markets for Venezuela s difficulttorefine crude.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to cut crude exports to the United States, accusing the US government of being behind the recent measure to freeze bank accounts and assets of state oil company Pdvsa in a row with ExxonMobil.

"Here I am addressing the American Empire, because you are really the master [behind the decision to freeze Pdvsa's assets]. Keep it up and you will see that we will not be sending you a single drop of oil. He referred to ExxonMobil as imperialist, whitecollar thieves that supported the Iraq invasion...".

In 2006, the country was the sixthlargest net oil exporter in the world. The oil sector accounts for more than threequarters of total Venezuelan export revenues, about half of total government revenues, and around onethird of total gross domestic product.

The US is the largest destination of Venezuela's petroleum exports. In 2006, the United States imported 1.41m barrels of crude oil from Venezuela, 8% lower than the previous year. Over the long term, Venezuela's exports to the US have increased, but its share of U.S. total imports has fallen from 50% in 1960 to 10% in 2006.

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