Alek Boyd at VCrisis has an interesting new article out about what London's oil traders say about Venezuela's Marxist president, Hugo Chavez who controls one sixth of our oil. Boyd points out that not only does Chavez raise oil prices by his trash talk, but also by cutting available supply.
 
He's doing the latter through the destruction of existing oil contracts among U.S. oil companies and general neglect of his state oil company. At The American Thinker, we also have noted how Chavez's abuse of oil workers is hitting world oil prices.
 
And Chavez, through his current actions, is doing it right now. Tuesday's FXStreet reports that U.S. oil inventories are almost all coming in from Venezuela right now. The oil trading wire writes:
 
Is Chavez positioning to stick it to the US economy and western oil companies? We are very reliant on Venezuelan oil and a supply disruption could have disastrous consequences for our economy. The Bush Administration has talked of a hemispheric energy base and this could be in jeopardy with the actions of Hugo Chavez. He's forming an alliance with Castro and we wonder if pay back for US sanctions against Cuba might be in their plans. Chavez says it's just about the money and wants Venezuela to get their fair share. Some see it as a Chavez power play to ensure that big oil gives up a bigger piece of the profit pie.

And all the while the energy markets will be worrying. So much to worry about and so little time! We had a substantial surge of imports from Venezuela last week. Venezuela has been the difference between rising and falling crude oil inventories for the US.
 
Besides worries about a Venezuela—triggered hemispheric war,  Chavez's empowerment of Castro's Cuba, the Bolivarian spread of Colombian narcotrafficantes, and the destruction of Venezuelan democracy, the Chavez Premium is also costing us a lot of money. Condoleezza Rice is going to have her hands full.
 
A.M. Mora y Leon 11 26 05