In case you're still buying Citgo gas...

[Okla-homey]

please know that Venezuala, which owns Citgo lock, stock & barrel, is plotting your demise.

http://aycu24.webshots.com/image/18703/2001791564206033541_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001791564206033541)
Venezualan "President For Life" Chavez and his new bestest buddy, Iranian President Iwannajihaad


Iran, Venezuela in "axis of unity" against U.S
Mon Jul 2, 2007 1:32PM EDT

ASSALOUYEH, Iran (Reuters) - The presidents of Iran and Venezuela launched construction of a joint petrochemical plant on Monday, strengthening an "axis of unity" between two oil-rich nations staunchly opposed to the United States.

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who both often rail against Washington, also signed a series of other deals to expand economic cooperation, ranging from setting up a dairy factory in Venezuela to forming an oil company.

"The two countries will united defeat the imperialism of North America," a beaming Chavez told a news conference during an official visit to the Islamic Republic, which the United States has labeled part of an "axis of evil".

"When I come to Iran Washington gets upset," he said.

The two presidents -- whose countries are members of the OPEC oil producing cartel -- earlier attended the ceremony to start building a methanol facility with an annual capacity of 1.65 million tons on the Islamic Republic's Gulf coast.

"Iran and Venezuela -- the axis of unity," read one of many official posters at the site near the port town of Assalouyeh, showing the two leaders hugging each other and shaking hands.

Ahmadinejad -- who came to power two years ago pledging to revive the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution -- hailed the event as a step towards boosting "brotherly" ties of the two "revolutionary" nations. Iran is embroiled in a worsening nuclear standoff with Western powers.

WESTERN "BARBARIANS"

Chavez, who last week pushed two U.S. oil giants out of his country as part of his self-styled socialist revolution, said: "This is the unity of the Persian Gulf and the Caribbean Sea."

Iranian officials said a second methanol plant would be set up in Venezuela. Each would cost about $650 million to $700 million and take four years to complete. Methanol is an alcohol which can be used as a solvent or an element in fuel.

That would help Iran to access the Latin American market, while Venezuela would get closer to buyers in India and Pakistan.

Chavez, who wants to forge an alliance of leftist states to counter U.S. policies, arrived in Tehran on Saturday after visiting Russia and Belarus.

In comments certain to please his hosts, who have often called on the United States to leave Iraq, Chavez branded those invading Iran's neighbor as "barbarians", drawing parallels with the European colonization of Latin America centuries ago.

"Those who try to convince the world that in Iran there are a bunch of barbarians are barbarians themselves."

Iran's hardline Kayhan daily said the two countries were riding on a "global anti-imperialism wave."

But both also face economic challenges.

Iran sits atop the world's second-largest oil and gas reserves, but U.S.-led efforts to isolate it over its nuclear ambitions are hurting investment in the sector, analysts say.

The Islamic state rejects accusations it is seeking to build atom bombs, saying it only aims to generate electricity.

Chavez last week forced U.S. oil majors from Venezuela, seizing oilfields from Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips.

But economists caution his social spending, mainly paid for by state oil company PDVSA, could run into trouble as Venezuela battles to maintain oil output after the exit of the majors. The opposition complain his anti-Americanism scares off investors.

[Jerk]

Someone needs to put a bullet in the back of that guy's head.

2000lb JDAM down the Chimney pipe of his house would be even better.

[Okla-homey]

Someone needs to put a bullet in the back of that guy's head.

We used to enforce this thingy called the Monroe Doctrine, but Castro ruined that.

[Harry Beanbag]

Chavez is a clown. He's playing the Mussolini to Ahmadinejad's Hitler.

[SoonerStormchaser]

^^^BINGO!^^^

[OklahomaTuba]

They are even calling themselves an Axis. How fitting.

The funny thing is, both nations are so f'ed up, sitting on trillions of barrels of oil, and one is having gas riots, and the other can't meet its contract obligations.

Nevertheless, Iran declared war on us LONG ago, and they are killing our soldiers in Iraq. That should be enough to bomb the **** out of them.

[mikeelikee]

No Citgo for me. I haven't bought a gallon of their gas in several years.

Bastages!

[crawfish]

That's the best reason ever for reducing our dependence on foreign oil. If we can come up with a viable energy alternative, we can bankrupt those basturds. :mad:

[XingTheRubicon]

I saw a lot of upside down Citgo bumper stickers in Norman.

[Scott D]

the irony is that you are likely buying Citgo gasoline at BP, Diamond, and any sort of gas stations that don't have Citgo's logo above them.

[picasso]

the irony is that you are likely buying Citgo gasoline at BP, Diamond, and any sort of gas stations that don't have Citgo's logo above them.
I don't buy at those places either.

I go the Conoco Phillips route, you know, support the local cats.

[Scott D]

I don't buy at those places either.

I go the Conoco Phillips route, you know, support the local cats.

no problem with that..but if Tuba really wanted to get his anti-Citgo message out, he'd be telling people not to buy gas or oil at all since the Citgo "owned" crude goes most anywhere...except Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil.

[Petro-Sooner]

This is from there website

Mission

We will create the maximum value for our shareholder through the strength of our people. We will do this by efficiently and reliably providing the energy that fuels the world's economies and improves the quality of life of people worldwide.

Values

Safety, Health & Environment
We operate our businesses safely and as good stewards of the environment. If it is not safe, we will not do it. We will comply with environmental regulations and serve as guardians of our natural resources and environment. We recognize that safety, the health of our employees and environmental stewardship are every employee's responsibility.

Integrity
We are honest and open with each other, our customers and our stakeholders. We recognize that integrity in all that we do is essential to our long-term success.

Respect
We understand the value of people to our company's success. As such, we trust and respect each other, our customers and our stakeholders. We treat each other as we expect to be treated. We value the opinions of all employees, customers and stakeholders. This respect and trust is critical to teamwork and collaborative efforts. We will work as a team, seamlessly and across departmental lines to achieve our corporate goals.

Fairness
We reward employees on the basis of their performance and contribution to the corporation. We recognize diversity as a core strength. We recognize the unique value of each employee and the varied perspectives he or she provides. We foster an inclusive environment that enables each of us to fully participate and contribute fully.

Social Responsibility
We understand that we operate as a privilege in the communities where we operate, not as a right. We promote the spirit of volunteerism and encourage employees to take active roles in our communities.

Competitiveness
We will be competitive through efficient and reliable operations, high-quality products and superior customer service. We adopt best practices, seek innovation and share knowledge. We learn from our mistakes, from each other and from the best in our industry. We apply technology to our competitive advantage and are good stewards of our controllable costs.




So theres nothing wrong with Citgo. They want to improve the quality of life of people. They sound like really nice people :rolleyes: :D

[Petro-Sooner]

More


http://www.citgoheatingoil.com/about_program.asp

You guys are to hard on ol Hugo.

I'm obviously joking.

[MamaMia]

I buy Shell. Is that okay? :confused:

I was told not to buy gas at a Valero either. I forgot why, but I quit that ages ago.

[Petro-Sooner]

I hadnt heard that about Valero. I wonder why.

[opksooner]

I'll show 'em. No gas for me. I'll buy diesel.


Oh.........wait.............

.............never mind

[MamaMia]

I hadnt heard that about Valero. I wonder why.
I'll ask my mother in law. Shes the one who gave us the order. :D

I just found this when I tried to look up the United States friendly gas stations. Its some information from the anti-Citgo people on which gas stations to use.

http://www.citgoboycott.org/wheretobuygas.htm

I'm going to switch over to Sinclair

[Scott D]

I hadnt heard that about Valero. I wonder why.

Valero stations mostly used to be Conoco or Citgo stations.

[1stTimeCaller]

I don't know where Valero gets their crude but they have a refinery in Ardmore.

[Petro-Sooner]

Valero gets its crude from the subsurface. Good grief, you suck at this.

[NormanPride]

I don't know where Valero gets their crude but they have a refinery in Ardmore.

Their HQ is in San Antonio, whatever that's worth. My dad does some advertising for them.

[BajaOklahoma]

Be nice to Valero. My b-i-l was a very high up in the company before he retired for health reasons. Now that he is gone, my sister needs his stock to do well.

[royalfan5]

Valero is strictly a refining and retail outfit out of San Antonio. It has evolved out of a hodgepodge of former independents. Most of the refineries are located in Costal areas near major ports, so the probably process a lot of imported crude.

[Vaevictis]

I buy Shell. Is that okay? :confused:

It depends on what you mean by "okay."

If you mean, "not involved in murderous *********gery," not so much. If that's the case... well, I don't think you can buy from any of the big guys. Specifically, Shell has apparently done some Very Bad Things (tm) in the Niger delta with respect to paying off Nigerian government officials for protection, who in turn used some... unsavory methods to deliver. (Keep in mind that this is Africa, where unsavory methods usually means kidnapping, rape, torture and murder.)

[Scott D]

It depends on what you mean by "okay."

If you mean, "not involved in murderous *********gery," not so much. If that's the case... well, I don't think you can buy from any of the big guys. Specifically, Shell has apparently done some Very Bad Things (tm) in the Niger delta with respect to paying off Nigerian government officials for protection, who in turn used some... unsavory methods to deliver. (Keep in mind that this is Africa, where unsavory methods usually means kidnapping, rape, torture and murder.)

and they are Dutch ;)

[OklahomaRed]

Chavez looks like his lips are sore? :D

[Scott D]

oh, and there will be an attempt at overthrowing Chavez within the next 3-5 years.

[Vaevictis]

Operation Ajax II, probably, if someone else doesn't get there first.

[Tulsa_Fireman]

and they are Dutch

There are only two things I can't stand in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures... and the Dutch.

[Vaevictis]

They did come up with Santa Claus; they can't be all bad.

[MamaMia]

Chavez looks like his lips are sore? :DProbably from his sharp tongue. :P

[Tulsa_Fireman]

Probably from his sharp tongue.

Or could it be...

HIS PLETHORA OF THE SEXY!

http://authentique.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/hugo.jpg


Fark at will.

[Scott D]

Operation Ajax II, probably, if someone else doesn't get there first.

Well, since many here are so anti-soccer...our national team happens to be playing a tournament in Venezuela at this time. Fans at these games since they started about a week ago have been mainly chanting "Freedom, Freedom" and other slogans that could be considered "Anti-Chavez". And yes, the crowds are a fair bit Venezuelan despite both Argentina and Brazil being participants.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

no problem with that..but if Tuba really wanted to get his anti-Citgo message out, he'd be telling people not to buy gas or oil at all since the Citgo "owned" crude goes most anywhere...except Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil.

Yep, we shut our Venezuela properties in, sold our interests and are looking to build a pipeline from Canada to Houston to supply our refineries that used to bring in the Venezuela, thick sour crude.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

I don't know where Valero gets their crude but they have a refinery in Ardmore.

Valero owns their own refineries. May be the largest gasoline refiner in the U.S. Valero stock is doing well these days.

[Tulsa_Fireman]

...to supply our refineries that used to bring in the Venezuela, thick sour crude.

I'm no oil guy, but I've heard from more than one source that the whole point of the middle eastern oil fix is that it's low sulphur sweet crude. If we're refining Venezuelan, now Canadian sour crude, what's stopping us from refining all the stock from capped sour crude wells here in the state? One I know for sure was capped less than a mile from Ma and Pa Tulsa_Fireman's house for this very reason.

Help me out, oil ******-*******s. Isn't sulphur content how you define sweet or sour crude?

[Tulsa_Fireman]

And why is kn0wer ab0uter in the language filter?

[1stTimeCaller]

you got it


Sour crude oil contains the impurities hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide, or mercaptans. All crude oil contains some impurities. When the total sulfide level in the oil is > 1 % the oil is called "sour".[1] The impurities will need to be removed before this lower quality crude can be refined into gasoline, thereby increasing the cost of processing. This results in a higher-priced gasoline than one made from sweet crude oil. Thus sour crude is usually processed into heavy oil such as diesel rather than gasoline to reduce processing cost. Sour oil is toxic and corrosive, with high levels of hydrogen sulfide.[2] The oil has the smell of rotten eggs, and at high concentrations the inhalation of hydrogen sulfide is fatal.[3]

Venezuela is a major producer of sour crude oil.



Sweet crude oil is a type of petroleum. Petroleum is considered "sweet" if it contains less than 0.5% sulfur[1], compared to a higher level of sulfur in sour crude oil. Sweet crude oil contains small amounts of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. High quality, low sulfur crude oil is commonly used for processing into gasoline and is in high demand, particularly in the United States and China. "Light sweet crude oil" is the most sought-after version of crude oil as it contains a disproportionately large amount of these fractions that are used to process gasoline, kerosene, and high-quality diesel.

Producers of sweet crude oil include:

Iraq
Saudi Arabia
Romania
Sudan
United Kingdom (Brent Crude)
United States (West Texas Intermediate)
United States (Nevada Great Basin Sweet)
United States (Wyoming Sweet)
United States (Louisiana Sweet)
Oman
Yemen
Nigeria
Malaysia
Norway
Canada
Indonesia
Trinidad and Tobago

[1stTimeCaller]

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2005/08/sweet_and_sour.html

[Tulsa_Fireman]

Thanks a bunch! That explains a lot.

[OklahomaTuba]

no problem with that..but if Tuba really wanted to get his anti-Citgo message out, he'd be telling people not to buy gas or oil at all since the Citgo "owned" crude goes most anywhere...except Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil.

Citgo's refined products are going to get bought no matter what. Maybe thats what Iran intends to do, import gas from Chavez.

Its more symbolic than anything for us here. That is, until we take his refineries the way he took our assets in Venezuala.

[BajaOklahoma]

And why is kn0wer ab0uter in the language filter?


Beano hates that phrase and blocked.
But I could be wrong, it might have been Norm that hates it.

[mxATVracer10]

so is QuikTrip(7-11 for OKC hillbillies) safe for us hills and trees folk?

[85Sooner]

No Citgo for me. I haven't bought a gallon of their gas in several years.

Bastages!


Dittos

[Petro-Sooner]

so is QuikTrip(7-11 for OKC hillbillies) safe for us hills and trees folk?

I'm not sure where they get there product from.

[Mjcpr]

I'm not sure where they get there product from.

I'm not either....they don't advertise a brand for some reason.

[OklahomaTuba]

so is QuikTrip(7-11 for OKC hillbillies) safe for us hills and trees folk?

No idear. QT isn't a refiner, so it could be anyone.

They probably buy through a broker on the open market I would imagine. Its all one big commodities market at some point. What ever is cheaper for them.

[Tulsa_Fireman]

I'm not either....they don't advertise a brand for some reason.

Because it's EEEEEEEEEEEVIL!

[TopDaugIn2000]

I buy gas from Albertson's.......where does theirs come from?


(although I won't be doing that for much longer.... :mad:)

[Bourbon St Sooner]

I'm no oil guy, but I've heard from more than one source that the whole point of the middle eastern oil fix is that it's low sulphur sweet crude. If we're refining Venezuelan, now Canadian sour crude, what's stopping us from refining all the stock from capped sour crude wells here in the state? One I know for sure was capped less than a mile from Ma and Pa Tulsa_Fireman's house for this very reason.

Help me out, oil ******-*******s. Isn't sulphur content how you define sweet or sour crude?

High sulfur crude takes special equipment to refine it. If the refineries in the area can't refine the high sulfur crude, they either have to build a refinery to handle it or transport it to a refinery that can handle it. I'm guessing there's not enough volume to justify the cost of refining.

[TopDaugIn2000]

I'm not sure where they get there product from.

http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/eng/water/images/bottledwater.jpg

[Scott D]

No idear. QT isn't a refiner, so it could be anyone.

They probably buy through a broker on the open market I would imagine. Its all one big commodities market at some point. What ever is cheaper for them.

which is why it's silly for you to say to avoid just Citgo alone. Technically you have to avoid everyone who has a stake in Venezuelan crude, which as of last week is everyone except ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil...so get to pimping those two chains of stations :)

[TheHumanAlphabet]

High sulfur crude takes special equipment to refine it. If the refineries in the area can't refine the high sulfur crude, they either have to build a refinery to handle it or transport it to a refinery that can handle it. I'm guessing there's not enough volume to justify the cost of refining.

ExxonMobil retrofitted all their gulf coast refineries to handle sour crude because the margins are extremely better to buy that crap on the market, there is more of it and make high dollar stuff from it downstream, in addition at the time to directly import Venezeula stuff. It is expensive and does require lots of investment in sulphur (and mercury) removing technologies. Sulphur is by far the biggest export from the refinery, as is food grade wax (parafin) and coke. When you are tooled for poor grade oil, you have more options. Most gasoline refiners are tooled for light sweet crude and therefore, buy more expensive crude, reduce the pool of suppliers and have reduced margins when upgrading.

As for the oklahoma well, I am no geologist or oil producer, but I suspect that those wells would require significant oil recovery technologies to recover any more oil from them, if anything else remains to be recovered. When those wells were capped at 10 dollar oil, it made no sense to try and recover, but today, it may make sense if they haddened capped them. I think they would have to redrill, and that would be way too expensive.

[Bourbon St Sooner]

ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil were forced out of the upstream business in Venezuela. That doesn't mean they don't buy Venezuelan crude for their refineries here in the U.S.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

This is true, however, I know much of the oil coming into the Gulf is Nigerian oil. Don't ask me about my trip to Nigeria I just returned from...

Oh and some great technologies if we can ramp it up...Gas to Liquids. Can be from natural gas or coal gasification. We could make super clean fuels and lubes with this technology.

[Bourbon St Sooner]

I hope you got hazard pay while you were over there. Well, at least you weren't kidnapped or your company paid the ransom.

[Petro-Sooner]

One I know for sure was capped less than a mile from Ma and Pa Tulsa_Fireman's house for this very reason.

Help me out, oil ******-*******s. Isn't sulphur content how you define sweet or sour crude?


It must have been some really bad stuff. I just asked one of our engineers about this issue and he thinks that it would have to be pretty bad to cap a well for that type of reason alone. Its not a general practice to cap based on crude type. As far as I understand.

[Mjcpr]

We could make super clean fuels and lubes with this technology.

Howzit is going to be so happy!

[Tulsa_Fireman]

I just asked one of our engineers about this issue and he thinks that it would have to be pretty bad to cap a well for that type of reason alone. Its not a general practice to cap based on crude type.

There could very well be more to it, then. I'm just not aware of it other than what I heard.

Appreciate all the info on it, fellas.