{"id":30962,"date":"2012-08-29T09:53:50","date_gmt":"2012-08-29T16:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/?p=30962"},"modified":"2012-08-29T09:53:50","modified_gmt":"2012-08-29T16:53:50","slug":"venezuelas-refinery-fire-highlights-countrys-dependence-on-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/2012\/08\/29\/venezuelas-refinery-fire-highlights-countrys-dependence-on-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela&#8217;s Refinery Fire Highlights Country&#8217;s Dependence on Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><ul class=\"inline-playlist playlist\" title=\"\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/archive.org\/download\/DailyDigest082912\/2012_08_29_wilpert.mp3\">Listen to this segment <\/a><\/li><\/ul><ul class=\"inline-playlist playlist\" title=\"\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/archive.org\/download\/DailyDigest082912\/2012_08_29_uprising.mp3\">Listen to the entire program<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" align=right width=50% src=\"\/home\/graphics\/venezuela_fire.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>One of the deadliest oil refinery explosions to happen in the last fifteen years took place this past Saturday after midnight in Punto Fijo, Venezuela. After battling a fire which consumed the area for 4 days, firefighters finally extinguished the blaze yesterday at the Amuay refinery.  <\/p>\n<p>The explosion, which was caused by a gas leak, killed 48 people and injured over one hundred others near one of the world&#8217;s largest refineries run by the government owned Petroleos de Venezuela or PDVSA. The fire started with two fuel tanks and then eventually spread to a third. Many of the victims were National Guard Troops who were stationed at the refinery. The Amuay refinery, which is one of the world&#8217;s largest, is part of the Paraguana refinery complex which processes about 900,000 barrels of crude oil a day.  <\/p>\n<p>Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is up for re-election on October 7th after 13 years of rule, called for three days of mourning following the blast. But, Chavez&#8217; critics, including his opponent in the upcoming election, Henrique Capriles Radonski have used the blaze as a political platform stating that the refinery blast was due to poor maintenance at the plant. Chavez&#8217; opponents claim that since 2003 there have been 79 other serious accidents reported at the Paraguana refinery complex. <\/p>\n<p>The oil industry was nationalized in Venezuela in the 1970s and large portions of the revenue from the plant go to fund billions of dollars in anti-poverty programs as well as military expenditures and infrastructure projects. The Venezuelan economy is highly dependent on foreign oil sales which account for 95% of Venezuela&#8217;s export income. Venezuelan consumers are worried about the cost of gasoline as the Amuay refinery supplies about 60% of Venezuela&#8217;s gasoline. The United States is a major buyer of Venezuelan oil. Currently, the price of gas in Venezuela is between 8 to 15 cents a gallon. Yet Venezuela, which has the largest reserve of crude oil in the western hemisphere has recently started importing gasoline.  <\/p>\n<p><em>GUEST: Gregory Wilpert, co-founder of venezuelanalysis.com, author of Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: The History and Policies of the Ch\u00e1vez Government<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.venenezuelanalysis.com\">www.venenezuelanalysis.com<\/a> for more information. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the deadliest oil refinery explosions to happen in the last fifteen years took place this past Saturday after midnight in Punto Fijo, Venezuela. After battling a fire which consumed the area for 4 days, firefighters finally extinguished the blaze yesterday at the Amuay refinery. The explosion, which was caused by a gas leak, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}