Loren Steffy

A business blog

Chavez plays Lucy; will oil companies be Charlie Brown?

AFP/Getty Images

Chavez: “Kick the football, Charlie Brown”

Hugo Chavez stands on the field, calling to foreign oil companies to return to his country like some oil-rich Lucy beckoning to Charlie Brown. The football, though, is access to some of the world’s largest oil reserves at a time when few fields of such size are available to western companies. Maybe this time, he’ll let them kick it.

It seems hard to imagine and U.S. companies taking taking Chavez’s enticement seriously. After all, it was less than two years ago that Chavez was seizing their interests and nationalizing oil fields and jacking up government royalties. When most companies fled the country, Chavez bade them good riddance.

What a difference a couple of years make. Oil prices have fallen by more than $100 a barrel since their high last summer, and Chavez has seen a sharp decline in the petrodollars he needs to fund the social programs that keep him in power.

During the past decade of Chavez’s rule, he’s shifted the country’s economic base so that almost all its revenue comes from oil. At the same time, he’s failed to invest in technology, and production from some of his country’s most prolific fields has been declining as a result.

The lower production and declining crude prices has forced Chavez to try to make nice with the foreign oil companies he derided as recently as last year. No hard feelings and all that. Surprisingly, some companies apparently are considering it, according to the New York Times. With few other places in the world to turn for new reserves, the cagey Chavez may be their best option.

Of course, before Chavez tries to win U.S. companies back, he may want to settle the lawsuits filed by Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips over the projects he swiped from them.

The question is, are U.S. companies really desperate enough to return to Venezuela with Chavez still in power? This isn’t likely to end well. Just ask Charlie Brown.

Categories: Energy, International

14 Responses

  1. Jaime Olivares says:

    It is funny(ironic) how economics and markets always trump politics. Last year, Chavez, Correa of Ecuador, Lula of brazil and of course,Ahmadinejad spouted their forms of nationalism against the United States. Now that price of oil is falling, they want to cooperate and play nice. The US government should intervene and force Chavez to settle with outstanding lawsuits and then seek other concesssions.

  2. Joe says:

    Let Chavez drown in his oil. What an idiot. We ought to go there and just take it.

    BEG Chavez!!! BEG!!! Rollover, you little jerk.

  3. craig says:

    This guy has to die at some point but he has such a stink about him it is hard to hold you nose long enough for that to happen.

  4. Jackalope says:


    What we need to do is make people like Chavez irrelevant. The US should do all it can to be energy independent, and that includes using our own oil and gas reserves. Unfortunately, to stay alive, US oil companies have to look elsewhere, thanks to our government. Our government hamstrings US companies by severely restricting exploration.

  5. Old Gringo Stan says:

    Good analogy Loren :)

  6. robert says:


    - – -

    The answer is:

    Big Oil will deal with the Devil (either Chavez or Satan) himself, if it thinks it can make money on the deal. Big Oil, Chavez and Satan all know that, ultimately, the only one that gets screwed is the American consumer.

  7. GeneL says:

    Chavez, you old coke head, you. This is gonna cost ya. Big time. :)

  8. slick says:

    obama will pressure us oil firms to suckle from the great chavez. watch this one!

  9. TexasPop says:

    Like others have said, let him eat oil. Or rather, let him face his people and tell them that his “strong man” tactics he was using to be their hero and get some steaks he could eat so he could throw them some bones … failed.


    Dictators have been shot in the head by the folks they were throwing bones to for less!

  10. Very Nice article, digg it!

  11. David says:

    Chavez made his bed, now he has to lie in it. First of all, he’s completely shut out Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, which limits the pool of companies that he can deal with, which gives them an advantage. If I were the other companies, I’d talk with him, but only agree to terms that would guarantee an amount of profit so obscene it wouldn’t matter if Chavez ever stabbed them in the back again.

  12. craig says:



    Posted by: Joe at January 15, 2009 11:54 AM

    Hey Joe, in case you missed it the time of America calling all the shots in the World has passed. Park that big SUV or Pick- Up Truck you must be driving and join the effort to make a better world starting with using less energy and using it more wisely not just continue the quest to find ever more cheap (or free for the taking) fossil fuel to burn and hasten our demise.

  13. Joe says:

    “Hey Joe, in case you missed it…”

    Ah, craig, you don’t even know me, and no I haven’t missed a thing when it comes to oil since I’ve only been dealing in the business for about 50 years. Park my big pick up? What the hell are you talking about? I probably use less than you do, Kreskin. This guy is a dictator, get it? I’m talking about a dictator…do you know what dictators do to their own people as well as people around the world? I guess you don’t have a clue. By the way, one of my relatives from the early part of our American oil industry was a crusader for making sure that oil companies, which he worked for, were told they are morally responsible corporate citizens for our environment and took huge political measures to Congress, generations before little peeps like you were gassing up your mini-bikes, to ensure that they quit dumping waste products into ponds and streams and lakes. He was a leader in reprocessing waste fuels into reusable products, and even had process patents that are still used today. So before you take me on, be aware of who you’re writing to. What exactly have you done for the betterment of mankind besides yap and use up perfectly good oxygen?

  14. David in Chester says:

    Nevertheless, whatever we may think of Hugo Chavez the oil reserves of Venezuela properly belong to Venezuela and to march into their country and forcibly take it would be wrong. I don’t know anything about the oil business but I did spend twenty five years in the military and I know that we don’t want to go there.