It is biting Hugo Chavez right in the ass these days.
President Hugo Chávez, buffeted by falling oil prices that threaten to unravel his efforts to establish a Socialist-inspired state, is courting Western oil companies again.
Until recently, Chávez had pushed foreign oil companies into a corner by nationalizing their oil fields, raiding their offices with tax authorities and imposing a series of royalties increases.
But faced with the plunge in prices and a decline in domestic production, senior officials have begun soliciting bids from some of the largest Western oil companies in recent weeks — including Chevron, Royal Dutch/Shell and Total of France — promising them access to some of the world’s largest petroleum reserves, according to energy executives and industry consultants.
I so dearly wish they’d turn him down while laughing their asses off in front of the world press.
You want to get rid of a dictator. Make him look foolish to his plebes. They will walk away.