Venezuela as the success of defiance

(An extremely interesting analysis of how Chavez was instrumental in pushing up the oil price in 1999-2000, and his domestic and international political success in effectively utilizing his bolstered petro-revenues)

Immediately after taking office as President of Venezuela in 1999, Hugo Chavez began work to shore up international oil prices. At that time, weak production discipline within OPEC led to excessive production quota violations, sharply increasing global crude oil supply. The resultant weakness of international oil prices had a strong negative impact on Venezuela’s economy.

Chavez appointed Ali Rodriguez, a former Communist guerrilla, as head of Venezuela’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (now the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum). Immediately, Rodriguez embarked on a tour of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producing countries. Rodriguez was charged with instilling greater production discipline within the cartel and convincing non-OPEC producers to reduce oil production.

wpherald.com