US Is "Not Ready" For Chavez Oil Ban Threat

The findings are likely to embolden his efforts. Hugo Chávez, president of the world's fifth largest oil exporting country, has threatened to "cut off" oil shipments to the US if Washington continues, as he alleges, to "plot" his overthrow. Venezuela supplies 11 per cent of US oil imports while Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa), the state-owned oil company, wholly owns five refineries in the US and partly owns four others through its subsidiary, Citgo. A production shutdown by managers of Pdvsa in a political dispute with the Chávez government cut supplies to the US for three months in early 2003, just before the US-led invasion of Iraq. Disruption to these supplies, the GAO report warns, would boost oil prices significantly. "A loss of 2.2m barrels a day of crude oil for six months," the report said, "would, all else remaining equal, result in a crude oil price spike of up to $11 a barrel in the early stages of the disruption." http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=FT&Date=20060613&ID=5794567

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