According to a PDVSA official in the local newspapers, Chinese companies will invest US$ 40 billion in the Orinoco oil belt of Venezuela, between now and 2016.
Let’s do the math:
Since all projects by law have PDVSA holding a 60% stake as a minimum, this implies that PDVSA will have to invest US$ 60 billion in five years or US$12 billion per year in the Chinese projects alone.
Add to that all of the other projects and the math is trivial:
At current oil prices, it ain’t going to happen.
