Venezuela's President plans to control domestic gasoline supplies through a control card

[jose chalhoub + 388]

Last Saturday, President Maduro announced his intentions to rationalise the supply of gasoline in the country through some tool called Carnet de la Patria (national card) under controlled subsidised prices and those who don't register for this identification will have to pay international prices. Definitely a despicable method, a masked way to reflect the growing scarcity of gasoline in Venezuela, the destruction of our refineries and the expansion of governmental control over the population to prevent the inevitable social unrest that is coming soon. Ironies of the largest oil reserve in the world. 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

There is a Canadian, living in Ontario,who bought a "Cometa" for the purposes of running a ferryboat between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.  For those of you who are not fans of old Russian naval architecture, a Cometa is a long narrow passenger boat that rides up on hydrofoils.  It is a magnificent expression of Russian genius, originally intended for use on the Volga River as a speedboat between cities.  Used Cometas have spread to other locations, including Greece as fast inter-island ferries, and Amsterdam, for high-speed commuter service along the North Sea Canal.  I wanted to get a small fleet of them for use between Boston and Bar Harbor, Maine, saving weekenders a long and congested drive on Friday and Sunday nights. (Although the Cometa will not do that, a hydrofoil can be designed to run at 100 mph.) 

In my discussions with the Canadian, he tells me that he hired a Venezuelan national as his Captain, as the Venezuelan Government sells marine diesel fuel at five cents a gallon - but only to Venezuelans.  Otherwise, he has to pay the "world market price," somewhere around three bucks.  Obviously, at five cents, he can run the ferry service.  

The idea of the service is to allow the Islanders, specifically small shopkeepers, to travel to the Mainland to purchase fresh foods and bring them back.  It was a neat service.  The Canadian has the hydrofoil for sale. Cheap. Oh, well. 

Edited July 30, 2018 by Jan van Eck

[TomTom + 183]

I just read that Maduro is under investigation in a PDVSA money-laundering scheme... hardly comes as a surprise after everything that happened in the last couple of months. 

[DanilKa + 443]

9 hours ago, TomTom said:

I just read that Maduro is under investigation in a PDVSA money-laundering scheme... hardly comes as a surprise after everything that happened in the last couple of months. 

no doubt Maduro is corrupt as fkuc but US authorities eagerness to freeze USD accounts and use bank info creates natural desire among other world leaders (who may be crooks of different degrees but that's not the point) to move away from USD.

@jose chalhoub, I'm surprised it took regime so long to implement talon system for petrol. That's a thing with Socialism - everything runs out, eventually - ask @Jan van Eck