[Bald Eagle777]

Russia is using proxy strategies in Venezuela also. I suspect there is a pretty good chance that some of the 100,000 Kalashnikovs could easily end up in the hands of FARC.

[cmsgop]

No question Chavez will be a problem in the near future. He needs to go and soon.....

[Phsstpok]

The third came from an unidentified officer at the Department of State who said, when referring to the Venezuelan government’s purchase of MiG 29s from Russia, “we shoot down MiGs.” That’s straight talking.

The State Department? Our State Department?

Yes! They can be taught!

Whoever this person is (I won't exclude the possibility that it is 44) I like them A LOT!!

[CaptainAwesome2]

How about you circulate some Kalashnikovs that explode when used or bullets that exlode and cripple the user when fired.

[bert]

The insurgants in Iraq and in Palestine armed with AK's are totally ineffective. The rifles merely provide aimed fire fodder.

It will be more so in the occident. No training and ineffective leadership is a perscription for death.

[e5man_r_u?]

"Russia is using proxy strategies in Venezuela also."

I may be wrong, but I think i more likely that hard currency rather than strategy motivated this sale.
Russia is in serious trouble and needs more money to develop its own oil.

They may be hoping for instability in the region, which would increase the profitablilty of their oil. I doubt their current

[rodguy911]

Where is the Cia's elite assassination squad when you really need them?

[Edward Watson]

This is a poorly written article, riddled with errors and false assumptions.

First of all, the petroleum market is GLOBAL. Just because China may purchase 100,000 barrels of oil from Venezuela doesn't mean the US is losing 100,000 barrels. That 100,000 barrels is still in the global market and any nation can pick it up as long as they're willing to pay the price for it.

What China is trying to do is get partnership deals with other oil-rich nations. This means it will invest a certain amount of money to develop the resources and in exchange will receive a percentage of the oil as well as receive a preferential treatment for oil resources if needed.

IOW, China then (depending on the agreement) becomes part owner of the pumped oil. Consequently, it will have first rights to that oil in case it's needed and it can acquire a percentage of the pumped oil at below market rate (or a certain amount for free). After all, that's fair. Whoever invests in the field deserves to benefit from their investment.

So, if China will be unable to acquire oil on the open market for whatever reason, at least it will have the security of a reliable supply since it then is part owner.

Why then is this such a problem? Who seriously believes China will be able to receive any oil from Canada or Venezuela or anywhere else if it ever enters into a military conflict with the US?

Besides, these stakes are always subject to nationalization and confiscation since China won't have the ability to prevent the host nation from seizing its assets in case of a conflict. Anyone remember the nationalizations in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq and elsewhere when foreign oil companies lost their investments?

A second problem with this article is its information concerning the Alberta oil sands.

FWIW, there are 2.5 trillion barrels of oil locked away in the oil sands and 300 billion barrels of which are recoverable using today's technologies. The enormity of the oil sands is hard to fathom - it is as large as the entire state of New York.

The profitability of the oil sands is actually much lower than the $40 figure cited in the article - Syncrude, Suncor and the other producers break even at around $13/barrel give or take $2 (IIRC). We can thank new techniques like SAGD and carbon injection for that.

Additional technologies will push the cost down further and it is anticipated the cost per barrel may go down to as low as around $8. IOW, roughly comparable to deep-sea oil.

Lastly, SCO, the refined end product of bitumen heavy oil is a marvelous product and in fact is better than the sweet crude from the North Sea and the Middle East.

I happen to be a strong advocate of the need to expand the Alberta oil sands - I want to see production increase to over 10 mmbd by 2020 so that the US will no longer need to rely upon Middle Eastern oil. Actually, I want to see Western Canada become part of the US ...

[American in Israel]

Russia spreads gasoline on the world to cause a fire, and the socialist in America protest Bush. Funny how that works. One would think all those rubles were going to a good cause, if you were a Communist that is.