Venezuela Fights American Shale with Profanity
3rd March 2015
It’s easy to understand why Venezuela is unhappy with American shale production. After all, the flood of new crude coming out of the U.S. has contributed to the global oversupply that has led to the precipitous fall in oil prices, which has crippled Venezuela’s economy. Before the price crash, Caracas needed an oil price of at least $122 per barrel to balance its budget, and with crude now hovering around $60 per barrel, Venezuela is hurtling toward default.
But while it publicly blames the United States for innovating its way back into relevance as one of the world’s biggest crude suppliers, privately Venezuela might be more concerned with its fellow OPEC member Saudi Arabia, which has insisted on not cutting production in response to the price slide, essentially consigning its fellow petrostates to budget crises while it weathers the storm on the back of an enormous sovereign wealth fund in a bid for market share. Surely Maduro has some four-letter words reserved for Riyadh as well.