Mission of Explanation

Even as Venezuela makes the tricky passage from dictatorship to democracy, pressure mounts in the U.S. Congress for a measure that would deal Venezuela a hard economic blow. U.S. crude-oil import restrictions, now on a voluntary basis that has already pinched Venezuela painfully, may be tightened and made mandatory. Unless all Venezuela understands the facts of the dropping oil market, restrictions may seem like U.S. disapproval of Venezuela's democratic trend.

To explain the facts, the U.S. last week sent to Caracas a mission of top-drawer experts: Thomas C. Mann, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs; Matthew V. Carson Jr., the Texas-lawyer-turned-naval-captain, who runs the voluntary restriction program; Ernest Thompson, chairman of the powerful Texas Railroad Commission, which controls oil production in the state that produces nearly half of U.S. oil; and Willis C. Armstrong, director of the State Department's Office of International Resources. Because Canada is also affected by U.S. restrictions, Canada's Ambassador to Venezuela joined the talks. Some of the facts: P: Of the 14% drop-off in Venezuelan oil production since the Suez-crisis peak of 2,900,000 bbl. a day, the slump in the world market accounted for about 10%, U.S. voluntary restrictions for only 4%. P: In the same period, politically powerful Texas' output has dropped 18%. P: Crude prices in the U.S. have shaded off 10-c- to 25-c- from the Suez high of $3.25 per bbl., might skid fast if any producer insists on flooding the market.

By seeing everyone from the ruling junta to industrial and political leaders, the U.S. mission gave Venezuelans a chance to be heard as well as to be persuaded. Nonetheless, as the mission left the government felt obliged to say that it still opposes all restrictions. The talks will continue later in Washington.

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