“The idea is to make sure the financial help goes directly to the poor, not the middleman.” (U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano, South Bronx)

What do you do when you possess nearly 10% of the world’s most valuable resource? One possibility: hold periodic press conferences to trumpet your record-breaking profits.
Another possibility: share the wealth; ease the burden of people who can’t afford it.

Oil-rich Venezuela, through its state owned company, CITGO, is pioneering this second, philanthropic approach to using the treasure it sits on. Hundreds of millions of dollars from its windfall petroleum profits are being directed to creating and expanding social programs for the country’s poor. But the generosity doesn’t stop at the nation’s borders. Venezuela is also providing discounted oil to more than a dozen of its neighbors, including its neighbor to the north, the United States.

To help poorer people in some of the coldest US states – Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York – CITGO is supplying heating oil to communities at prices 45% – 60% below market rate. Since CITGO has 14,000 gas stations and eight refineries in the U.S., it has its own distribution system already in place. Needing no middlemen, it can keep its prices low.

Venezuela has announced that it will double the heating oil program in 2007. In addition, it will add a second phase, putting a portion of its profits into local development funds which will assist unemployed people to set up cooperative enterprises. The products of the cooperatives will then be sold to Venezuela.

These programs emerge from a philosophy about wealth and economic activity. Says Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, “CITGO has done good business in the U.S. We believe companies, along with making a profit, need to have social responsibilities for the people they sell to.”

If you would like to frequent one of CITGO’s 14,000 gas stations, you can find out where they might be on any route you are planning to drive by going to http://www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator/StoreLocatorRoute.jsp

Resources:
“Oil for Bronx Poor Is a Foreign Gift”, New York Daily News,  November 22, 2005
“Oil on Troubled Waters”, www.commondreams.org

 

 

 

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