At this rate we will soon be down to the prices in Caracas .. $0.06 per gallon for gas .. nice.

Great as long as we dont have nutty hugo to go with the low prices

Herr Doktor Johann .. unfortunately it's a Faustian Bargain that comes bundled with Hugo .. but we could get used to his brand of petro-socialism .. a little stronger than Canadian socialism .. but we can handle it .. Jawohl Herr Doktor Johann?..

Thats all good but see the Peso has devaluted according to DT home page, when did that happen? Thats not a good sign it has been stable for a long time.

US Dollar (Buy)RD$ 34.30
US Dollar (Sell)RD$ 35.00
Euro (Buy)RD$ 50.35
Euro (Sell)RD$ 51.55

(Devaluated) , I wish they would incorporate a spell check on this site!

GC, you might not have the nutty Hugo, but you for sure have the nutty Exxon-Mobil, and nutty Perto Canada, and nutty Shell, who are ripping you off blind, and stealing what is supposed to be wealth of the people (those oil sands in Alberta belong to you and other Canadians) and there is nothing you can do about it. at least Hugo is sharing Venezuelan wealth with Venezuelan people, while you in Canada are paying $1.25 a liter while west of the country is covered with oil fields.

Herr Doktor Johann .. did you get that? .. defend your beloved fatherland before it's too late. Jawohl Herr Doktor Johann?

Username,

When It comes to Venezuela do not be fooled. Nothing can be father from the truth. Sure gasoline is almost given away (Ghoul, your wrong is it $0.12 per gallon). But thats it the prices for food there are outrageous, higher than in the US because they import almost everything. He shares nothing with his own people, he is buying himself on the international stage and helping the other countries in the region so that he may influence their politics. As much as I disagree with his politics and the way he conducts business, I will give him his due, he does nothing absolutly nothing that won't benefit him in the end and once he has everyone hooked on petrocaribe and all of the countries are in debt to Venezuela up to their eyeballs he will then squeeze the vice to get what he wants.

Not wanting to mix both answers in one reply I will explain how Big Oil operates having worked with a support company to the oilfield for 25 years.
1. Find the oil-seismic surveys on land, same on water but by large vessels
25-30 thousand per day. this is done by a contractor not the oil company. 3 to 6 months
2.Interpet the data and have it confirmed by the oil company geotechs / engineers another 3 to 6 months
3. develop a drilling program for a given area by each well-done by the oil company 2 to 3 months
4.Contract a drilling company with available rigs to drill the well, a 4th. generation Semi-Submersible goes for around $300,000 per day (3 to 6 months per well if everything goes well)
thats 25 to 54 million dollars per well
5.current rates can be confirmed here ; http://www.rigzone.com/data/dayrates/
Keep up, 1 to 1 1/2 years have gone by and no oil or gas has come out of the ground yet

once the well have proven reserves and it is in an area that has no existing shipping facilities (pipelines or if the field warrents it production facilities)
Wells are proven and the capped
6. Engineering begins for a production facility and a shipyard or fabrication begins construction, depending on design requirements weather, wave height, etc. 1 1/2 to 2 years before it is installed in the offshore location. Cost 50-90 million
7. Concurant pipelines to connect the well to the production facility are being installed while the facility is being fabricated cost. 20-30 million
8 Once the facility is installed, commissioned and commences production to get the product to shore to a refinery is about 4 to 6 years from start to finish and they have invested a couple hundred million dollars in the process.

Something that the press always seems to leave out when the bang on these companies is the fact that they pay for

the right to drill in a particular area, in the US it is the MMS (minerals management service) offshore or the BLA (bureau of land Management) oil companies bid on leases agian a huge expense. In Venezuela is the ministery of Mines, same in Colombia. On the refining side it is no cheaper. I was involved in two projects in Venezuela where the mini-refineries or upgraders were constructed each cost 3.5 to 4 Billion dollars. I would imagine that a full blown refinery built from the ground up in the US today would require an investment of at least 6 Billion dollars. And here is a key issue that always seems to escape the latin mindset. The wells do not continualy produce without maintenance, the refineries require maintenance which takes them off-line. While it may seem that they are making a killing, how much have they spent to get there.

Exxon-US
Conoco-US
Chevron US
Shell-Dutch
Petro Canada-Canada
Husky-Canada
Veba-German
Pluspetrol-Peruvian
Repsol-Spanish
PDVAS-Venezuela
ARAMCO-Saudi
Lukoil-Russian
Ecopetrol-Colombian


Whoever you want to pick, when the operate in a foreign country they pay local taxes hire local employees, the rent homes, build offices, buy eqipment etc.....

Now I am not familar with the Canadian tax scheme but in the US after all the expense of bringing a well on line, refine it and sell the raw product. The US government collects $0.68 cent per gallon in Federal taxes, what the hell did they do to deserve that

The type of stuff you describe about bringing an oil well online is typical for developing almost any kind of mineral resource. If that is the case, what gives OIL CORPORATIONS the right to keep squeezing more and more PROFITS from the American public? Why would COAL COMPANIES not be entitled to the same kind of PROFITTERING as OIL CORPORATIONS?