With an estimated total of 1,360,000,000,000 barrels of oil reserves, Venezuela of far greater strategic importance to USA than we likely realize!
Palast makes a key point related to the price of crude. At $10 a barrel the supply is low because only the easy to extract and refine kind are economically feasible. But at $70 a barrel it’s a whole new oil market. The heavy stuff and tar sands then become economical to extract and refine, and a new far higher finite supply is realized almost magically. In short, it’s just a question of supply and demand and how the price of a commodity depends on how much of it consumers want. Too little demand and the price is low, but when it’s high like now and rising, then so does the price.
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