http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14001903/
By Andy Webb-Vidal in Caracas
FT.COM - Updated: 12:42 a.m. ET July 24, 2006
Richard Lugar, chairman of the US Senate foreign relations
committee, has urged the Bush administration to adopt specific
"contingency plans" for a potential disruption to oil supplies
from Venezuela.
In a letter sent to Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, last Friday,
a copy of which has been obtained by the Financial Times, Mr Lugar
warned the US that it needed to "abandon" reliance on a
"passive approach" to energy diplomacy.
Mr Lugar's warning follows the release last month of an
investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that
the US was ill-prepared for an oil embargo by Venezuela, the
world's fifth largest exporter.
President Hugo Chávez, whose government has been emboldened
by a torrent of oil revenues, has several times warned that he
would "cut off" oil supplies to the US if Washington persisted
in allegedly plotting his overthrow.
"Venezuela's leverage over global oil prices and its direct supply
lines and refining capacity in the US give Venezuela undue ability
to impact US security and our economy," Mr Lugar wrote in his
letter to Ms Rice.
The GAO study, commissioned by Mr Lugar, a Republican,
estimated that a Venezuelan oil boycott would raise oil prices by
$11 (?9, £6) per barrel over a six-month period and reduce US
economic output by $23bn.
Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to the US, dismissed
as "absurd" the GAO study's premise that Mr Chávez would
purposefully shut off oil supplies, citing the economic impact it
would have on his own country.
Venezuela ships two-thirds of its oil to the US, or about 1.5m b/d
and oil accounts for about 80 per cent of export revenue and half
of fiscal revenue.
Mr Lugar, while acknowledging that an embargo seemed unlikely,
said that it would be "negligent" of the US to rely on "ad hoc"
responses, such as use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
"However unrealistic Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's
repeated threats to disrupt oil supply may be, we have a
responsibility to plan appropriate contingencies that protect the
American people," he wrote.
Mr Lugar added that there was a "real risk" that Venezuela could
"act in concert" with other countries to disrupt oil supplies. Mr
Chávez is due to visit several countries in Asia over the next two
weeks, including Iran.
Myles Frechette, a former US ambassador and now a consultant
on Latin American affairs, said: "Lugar believes that when an
opportunity presents itself, Chávez will try to break his oil links
with the US."
Venezuelan oil exports to the US fell six per cent in the first four
months of 2006 to 178m barrels, compared with the same period
last year. One of Mr Chávez's policy goals is to reduce
dependence on the US as its main market and send more oil to China.
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Hvis Hugo lukker for olien til USA, så vil det sikkert blive kordineret
med Iran, der måske om 20 dage har udsigt til sanktioner.
Og mon så prisstigningen vil være på sølle 11$,,,
U.N. May Impose Sanctions Unless Nation Ends Nuclear Activity by Aug. 31
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073100353.html
"Iran maintains that it has the right, under the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
to enrich and reprocess uranium to fuel a nuclear energy program."
Uret tikker hurtigt for USA og Co.
http://www.toptips.com/debtclock.html
Jan Rasmussen