Venezuela Offers To Sell Refinery Assets To China, Russia -- The Energy And Market Page, Page 3, T+284 -- November 1, 2017

Venezuela offers refinery assets to China, Russia -- ArgusMedia:

Venezuela´s financially struggling state-owned oil company PdV is offering to transfer control of its largest domestic refining complex to oil companies from Russia and China, the Opec country´s largest state creditors.

The joint venture proposal centers on PdV´s 940,000 b/d CRP complex, once one of the world´s largest and most modern refinery systems. The CRP, located on the Paraguaná Peninsula, consists of the 635,000 b/d Amuay refinery and the 305,000 b/d Cardón refinery, which together are currently processing a third of their combined nameplate capacity, according to a week-old PdV internal report seen by Argus.

Amuay throughput is about 200,000 b/d or 31.4pc of its design capacity, and Cardón is running 110,000 b/d or 36pc of nameplate capacity, the report shows. Faced with dwindling cash flow and mounting arrears on its dollar-denominated debt, PdV appears to be trying to mortgage assets to stay afloat.

How the iPhone X could steal Christmas: story at WSJ. The writer(s) suggest that local retail, brick-and-mortar could have a bad, bad Christmas for three reasons:

• Apple's iPhone X
• higher gasoline prices
• Amazon

It should be noted that:

• iPhone X: for those with money; upper middle class; the rich
• higher gasoline prices: lower middle class
• Amazon: lower and upper middle class

Amazon will do just fine. Apple will do just fine.