In a move that could end up hurting the pocketbooks of millions of Americans, Venezuela’s president announced August 23 that his nation will triple its oil exports to China over the next three years.

The outspoken, anti-American Hugo Chavez added that by 2019, Venezuela’s current flow of 150,000 barrels per day to China will have increased more than six-fold. “In 2009, we’ll reach half a million barrels a day, and in the decade after that we’ll see a million barrels,” he said during a visit to China (International Herald Tribune,August 24).

Oil-hungry Beijing is ecstatic, and appears ready and willing to reward Venezuela handsomely. To facilitate the increased oil flow, China is building 18 tankers for Venezuela’s fleet. The day after Chavez announced the move, he revealed that the Chinese premier had privately promised to support Venezuela’s bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Where will Venezuela get all this additional oil for China? Although it is one of the world’s largest oil producers, its exports are dropping. The fact that Chavez is nationalizing its oil and gas industry, while concurrently levying higher royalty payments on foreign-owned oil companies still operating in Venezuela, portends further strains on national production. How will Chavez keep his promise to Beijing?

The answer, in short, may well be to cut the United States off.

Currently, the U.S.-Venezuela oil relationship is symbiotic: Venezuela is America’s fourth-largest oil supplier; and the U.S. buys up 68 percent of Venezuelan crude exports. Chavez has stated that he wants to reduce Venezuela’s dependence on American oil consumption.

He recently made a worrying move in this direction when he sold more than 1,800 of Venezuela’s American-based Citgo gas stations and one of its refineries. Citgo is the Venezuelan subsidiary that processes and distributes most of Venezuela’s oil in the U.S. Although the gas stations Chavez sold represent only 14 percent of Citgo’s U.S. network, the worry is that this could foreshadow a major trend of Venezuelan sell-offs. Citgo has also previously announced plans to sell two U.S. asphalt refineries and its interests in two large American refined-petroleum pipelines.

If Venezuela were to continue selling Citgo’s American facilities, exporting oil to American consumers would become a far less lucrative venture; shipping to alternative customers would become a more attractive possibility.

For the U.S. to lose its fourth-largest supplier of crude oil would have serious ramifications—one being strained supply and/or higher gas prices.

For Americans, many of whose financial positions are characterized by high debt levels and falling real wages (when adjusted for inflation), higher fuel costs are the last thing needed or wanted.