THE NEW WORLD OIL ORDER:

HUGO CHAVEZ TELLS BBC, WE HAVE MORE OIL THAN SAUDI ARABIA

Greg Palast Reporting for BBC Newsnight TV

Monday, April 3, 2006

In an exclusive interview with GREG PALAST, Hugo Chávez declares a new 

Oil order. 

Venezuela officially demands OPEC recognize his nation's reserves as

largest. 

Tonight, BBC Newsnight will kick off its Latin America Week Special 

With Palast's exclusive report from Venezuela. 

You can watch the BBC Newsnight Report live at 5.30 pm EST at 

Newsnight's

website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm 

(The report will remain viewable for 24 hours). 

Read below about BBC Newsnight revelations ... 

NO MORE CHEAP OIL SAYS CHAVEZ

BBC Newsnight

Monday April 3, 2006 

If you thought high oil prices were just a blip think again. In an 

Exclusive interview with Greg Palast for BBC Newsnight the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez 

has ruled out any return to the era of cheap oil. 

The colourful Venezuelan leader hosts the OPEC meeting on June 1 in 

Caracas and he will ask OPEC to set $50 a barrel - the average price last year – as the long term level. 

During the 1990s the price of oil had hovered around the $20 mark falling as low as $10 a barrel in early 1999. 

Chavez told Newsnight "we're trying to find an equilibrium. The price 

of oil could remain at the low level of $50. That's a fair price it's not a high price". Hugo Chavez will 

have added clout at this OPEC meeting. 

US Department of Energy analyses seen by Newsnight show that at $50 a 

Barrel Venezuela - not Saudi Arabia - will have the biggest oil reserves in OPEC.

Venezuela has vast deposits of extra heavy oil in the Orinoco. 

Traditionally these have not been counted because at $20 a barrel they were too expensive to exploit - 

but at $50 a barrel melting them into liquid petroleum becomes extremely profitable. 

The US DoE report shows that at today's prices Venezuela's oil reserves 

Are bigger than those of the entire Middle East including Saudi Arabia, the  Gulf states, Iran and Iraq. 

The US DoE also identifies Canada as another future oil superpower. Venezuela's deposits alone could extend 

the oil age for another 100 years. 

The US DoE estimates that Chavez controls 1.3 trillion barrels of oil - 

More than the entire declared oil reserves of the rest of the planet. Hugo Chavez told Newsnight's Greg 

Palast that "Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. In the future Venezuela won't have any 

more oil - but that's in the 22nd century. Venezuela has oil for 200 years." Chavez will ask the OPEC meeting 

in June to formally accept that Venezuela's reserves are now bigger than Saudi Arabia's. 

Chavez's increased muscle will not go down well in Washington. In 2002 

The Bush administration welcomed an attempted coup against Chavez. He told Newsnight that the Americans 

had organised it in an attempt to get hold of Venezuela's oil. 

Ironically by invading Iraq George Bush has boosted oil prices and

effectively transferred billions of dollars from American consumers to

Chavez. Up to $200 million a day - half of it from the US - is flooding 

Into Caracas. Chavez is spending this on building infrastructure and 

Increasing the minimum wage and improving health and education in the poor ranchos which surround the 

cities. As a result even his opponents accept that Chavez is extremely popular and will easily win the next 

Presidential election  in December. 

Chavez is also spending billions in the rest of Latin America - 

Exchanging contracts for oil tankers and infrastructure projects and buying up loans in Argentina and 

Brazil. He has made cheap oil deals with Ecuador and the Caribbean. 

He has also spent some of the dollars which have come in from the US

supporting Fidel Castro in Cuba. In return Cuba has supplied the 

thousands of doctors and teachers who are transforming conditions in the barrios of Caracas. Washington 

accuses Chavez of buying influence in Latin America. 

The Newsnight team had to endure the long speeches and marathon six 

hour TV shows which Hugo Chavez delights in. Chavez posed for Newsnight posing with the sword of Simon 

Bolivar the 18th century liberator who drove out Spanish imperialists from South America. The symbolism 

was clear but behind the

showman is a clever political brain. 

Chavez has not invaded any foreign countries. He does not have secret

prisons at home or abroad. Chavez has repeatedly won democratic 

elections and the opposition operates freely although some members have been charged with accepting illegal 

foreign donations. Nonetheless George Bush's administration repeatedly targets Chavez on human rights 

and finances his opponents. 

Earlier this year US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compared Chavez 

to

Hitler - because he was elected democratically - and last year the

influential American evangelist Pat Robertson called for his 

assassination.

Robertson later apologized and said that he did not "necessarily" have 

to be

killed so long as he was kidnapped by American special forces. 

Chavez told Newsnight that he was still concerned that George Bush had 

Not learnt the lessons of Iraq and would order an invasion to try to secure Venezuela's oil. "I pray this 

will not happen because US soldiers will bite the dust and so will we, Venezuelans". He warned that any 

such attempt would lead to a prolonged guerilla war and an end to oil production. "The US people should 

know there will be no oil for anyone". 

Chavez does not accept Tony Blair's criticism of him for lining up with

Fidel Castro. He told Newsnight "if someone is sleeping together it is 

Bush and Blair. They share the same bed." 

--

Also see The Guardian story about the report:

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1745467,00.html   

Read, "The Assassination of Hugo Chavez," in Greg Palast's new book, 

"ARMED

MADHOUSE: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War" to be 

released

by Penguin Dutton June 6 (US) and July 7 (UK). 

Pre-order it today or donate to Palast Investigative Fund for a 

personally

signed copy at: http://www.gregpalast.com/armedmadhouse/preorder.html 

View Palast's investigative reports for Harper's Magazine and BBC

Television's Newsnight at http://www.GregPalast.com  

Special thanks to Matt Pascarella, Leni von Eckardt, and Richard Rowley 

for

their research and production assistance on this report.