3 ms·

China also doesn't have the capabilities to extract the super heavy and poor quality Venezuelan crude, only the US has those capabilities. Essentially all of t

China also doesn't have the capabilities to extract the super heavy and poor quality Venezuelan crude, only the US has those capabilities. Essentially all of the existing infrastructure in Venezuela was built by Americans, and is crumbling. While Venezuela has tremendous amounts of oil, most of it is not very easy to extract profitably.

JumpCrisscross 10mo ago
> China also doesn't have the capabilities to extract the super heavy and poor quality Venezuelan crude They could build this. That's orthogonal to planting an oil-burning carrier group halfway around the world next to nuclear CVNs that could be reached from U.S. soil by Cessna 172s.
- monerozcash 10mo ago
  It would not be worth it for them, they have much more lucrative options in their own neighborhood.
  - JumpCrisscross 10mo ago
    > It would not be worth it for them Oh yes, we completely agree. More to the point, the tens of billions of dollars they'd burn–at a minimum–on a pointless proxy war with the U.S. would be better spent continuing to reduce China's reliance on foreign oil.
    - monerozcash 10mo ago
      I specifically meant that it wouldn't be worth it for China to do any kind of large scale oil extraction in Venezuela even if the US let them. Most of the oil in Venezuela is really hard to extract profitably. Without US expertise and investment the oil in Venezuela will tend to stay in the ground.
lenkite 10mo ago
> China also doesn't have the capabilities to extract the super heavy and poor quality Venezuelan crude, only the US has those capabilities. Strangely, India does too.
- monerozcash 10mo ago
  True, but so far at a pretty small scale and with much of the equipment sourced from the US as far as I understand it. I don't think they've been able to get the costs down to profitable levels either, right?
  - lenkite 10mo ago
    Actually, India has one of the worlds largest refineries for extra heavy crude oil processing. The Reliance Jamnagar refinery have a crude capacity ~1.4 million barrels per day (bpd). The Nayara refinery (Russian stakeholder) is rather smaller at 390–400 kbd. There are a few other state owned and private refineries in the South that can process heavy crude cumulatively upto a million bpd. You are right that the equipment was from US (Lummus Technology). However, due to sanctions, the Nayara refinery has begun retrofitting from eastern suppliers. It is sad that both Venezuela and Iran (and now Russia) are all now under West-enforced oil sanctions. Makes life difficult for poor nations that don't have native oil supply. It is not possible to compete with EU for economic oil purchase in the global market
    - monerozcash 10mo ago
      Refiners, yes. The problem for Venezuela is the extraction, Venezuelan oil is very hard to get out of the ground.

JumpCrisscross 10mo ago

> China also doesn't have the capabilities to extract the super heavy and poor quality Venezuelan crude They could build this. That's orthogonal to planting an oil-burning carrier group halfway around the world next to nuclear CVNs that could be reached from U.S. soil by Cessna 172s.

monerozcash 10mo ago
It would not be worth it for them, they have much more lucrative options in their own neighborhood.
- JumpCrisscross 10mo ago
  > It would not be worth it for them Oh yes, we completely agree. More to the point, the tens of billions of dollars they'd burn–at a minimum–on a pointless proxy war with the U.S. would be better spent continuing to reduce China's reliance on foreign oil.
  - monerozcash 10mo ago
    I specifically meant that it wouldn't be worth it for China to do any kind of large scale oil extraction in Venezuela even if the US let them. Most of the oil in Venezuela is really hard to extract profitably. Without US expertise and investment the oil in Venezuela will tend to stay in the ground.

lenkite 10mo ago

> China also doesn't have the capabilities to extract the super heavy and poor quality Venezuelan crude, only the US has those capabilities. Strangely, India does too.

monerozcash 10mo ago
True, but so far at a pretty small scale and with much of the equipment sourced from the US as far as I understand it. I don't think they've been able to get the costs down to profitable levels either, right?
- lenkite 10mo ago
  Actually, India has one of the worlds largest refineries for extra heavy crude oil processing. The Reliance Jamnagar refinery have a crude capacity ~1.4 million barrels per day (bpd). The Nayara refinery (Russian stakeholder) is rather smaller at 390–400 kbd. There are a few other state owned and private refineries in the South that can process heavy crude cumulatively upto a million bpd. You are right that the equipment was from US (Lummus Technology). However, due to sanctions, the Nayara refinery has begun retrofitting from eastern suppliers. It is sad that both Venezuela and Iran (and now Russia) are all now under West-enforced oil sanctions. Makes life difficult for poor nations that don't have native oil supply. It is not possible to compete with EU for economic oil purchase in the global market
  - monerozcash 10mo ago
    Refiners, yes. The problem for Venezuela is the extraction, Venezuelan oil is very hard to get out of the ground.