London, Venezuela sign oil deal
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will supply
cheap oil for London buses in exchange for urban planning advice from the U.K.
capital’s mayor, Ken Livingstone.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will supply cheap oil for London buses in
exchange for urban planning advice from the U.K. capital’s mayor, Ken
Livingstone.
Livingstone and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro signed the deal at London City Hall today. Venezuela’s national oil company, PDVSA, will provide a discount of up to $32 million a year on the city’s annual transportation fuel bill of 100 million pounds ($195 million), the mayor said. The city will use the savings to offer half-price bus fares to 250,000 poor Londoners.
Chavez, who wasn’t in London today, suggested the plan during a meeting with Livingstone in London last year. London officials will open an office in Caracas to provide advice on issues such as traffic management.
Oil is as inexpensive for Venezuela as big-city management expertise is for London, the mayor said. “Each partner is drawing on something that for them is relatively cheap but for the other is vital and expensive,'’ he said.
The debate that follows deals like this really is dependent on context. There is an obvious economic benefit for the poorest in each municipality. Opponents of either of these politicians may consider that benefit meaningless in their own scheme of things.
If governments with serious economic clout wanted to prevent the mileage these two will derive from the deal — they always could have done something similar — first. Couldn’t they?
Livingstone and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro signed the deal at London City Hall today. Venezuela’s national oil company, PDVSA, will provide a discount of up to $32 million a year on the city’s annual transportation fuel bill of 100 million pounds ($195 million), the mayor said. The city will use the savings to offer half-price bus fares to 250,000 poor Londoners.
Chavez, who wasn’t in London today, suggested the plan during a meeting with Livingstone in London last year. London officials will open an office in Caracas to provide advice on issues such as traffic management.
Oil is as inexpensive for Venezuela as big-city management expertise is for London, the mayor said. “Each partner is drawing on something that for them is relatively cheap but for the other is vital and expensive,'’ he said.
The debate that follows deals like this really is dependent on context. There is an obvious economic benefit for the poorest in each municipality. Opponents of either of these politicians may consider that benefit meaningless in their own scheme of things.
If governments with serious economic clout wanted to prevent the mileage these two will derive from the deal — they always could have done something similar — first. Couldn’t they?
Posted: Fri - February 23, 2007 at 07:34 AM