Chavez appears to be turning away from the US and towards China as the future major importer of Venezuelan oil, according to Forbes' Paul Maidment.
Chavez paid a three-day visit to Beijing in late September during which he and Chinese leaders struck deals to build four oil tankers and to construct or upgrade more oil refineries in China capable of processing Venezuela's crude. PetroChina (nyse: PTR - news - people ) just upgraded the Liaoyang refinery to that end. China and Venezuela also agreed to build a refinery in Venezuela's Orinoco Basin and launch a joint oil-development project there, potentially one of the world's largest oil fields.
China currently buys 4% (330,000 barrels of oil a day) of Venezuela's crude. Chavez wants to get that up to 1 million barrels by 2012. China also recently signed a $3 billion oil deal with Iraq, and is meant to begin receiving oil supplies from Turkmenistan in 2009. Coupled with its deals with Angola, Nigeria, Russia, and Sudan - among several others - it seems that "non-interference" has its advantages.