After meeting in Caracas on Saturday with Chinese National Petroleum Company President Jiang Jiemin, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said several major deals are in the works.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR.2007032400548.html.
He crowed, "The United States as a power is on the way down. China is on the way up. China is the market of the future."
CNPC will invest billions of dollars for a 40% share in developing Venezuela's Orinoco Belt heavy crude, and partner in building three refineries in China and a "super-fleet" of tankers to move the crude. China is the world's second largest oil consumer (after the US); Venezuela is the fifth largest exporter of oil to the US (despite Chavez' rhetoric). Venezuela will ship one million barrels per day to China by 2012 and do more business with Russia and Iran as it seeks to cut its reliance on the US as its primary market. (Chavez nationalizing Venezuela's oil industry, forcing out ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron and others.)
Rhetoric aside, oil is bought and sold on the world market. New oil, even if tied up in exclusive deals, adds to world supply. Chavez is preening, and nationalizing the US companies out is a negative, but they will find other places to invest. The overall impact on world price and supply should be positive.