Chavez - Will cut oil

[blob21]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/america s/7238214.stm

Any thoughts?

Could this lead to a war - we all know that the US economy is on the brink of going down the toilet and any disruption of oil supplies could make that go from bad to worse ( im my opinion).

If it did lead to war, would this not mean America was walking into another jungle war - a tried and tested failure where the enemy will mimic the tactics of the veit cong.

Or given how much either of those options sucks, will the US either give in, or simply redouble their efforts to get chavez out of power by intrigue and whatever else. ( I don't think anyone can deny the CIA must be working pretty hard on ways to get the guy out of power)

[bilzzz]

given the state of the current wars the coalition is fighting currently,invasion dosen't sound like a good option,as for secretly getting rid him it would be a waste of time and money..........................the question is why not try to negotiate?

[Slizor]

Could this lead to a war

Nope. As the article says the majority of oil refineries capable of using Venezuelan oil are in the US, so it would very damaging to the Venezuelan economy to do so. What is more likely is that Venezuela will continue its gradual realignment to supplying Chinese oil needs, dependent (and this is a very educated guess) on the situation with Chinese refineries.

On a side note, I don't actually think what they're arguing over (the Orinoco Belt) is actually a conventional oil field. Rather it is a large deposit of tar sands, which are no where near as profitable as conventional fields.