Slumping oil prices are testing Venezuela and other large petroleum exporters. Petrodollars are rapidly turning into petropennies. As oil prices flirt with the $30-a-barrel level , a key question becomes whether producing nations can continue to stand the pain. Assessing the economic and political risks to major exporters is far from straightforward. Depending on whom you ask, the crude price large producers such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela require to balance their budgets is anywhere from the high double digits to low triple digit dollars per barrel. Such prices are now a distant memory. Oil prices on Tuesday again slid. Brent, the global benchmark, is now down around 18% since the year’s start. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, briefly broke through the psychologically significant $30 level Tuesday, while key Middle Eastern and Russian varieties already are below $30. If prices stay lower […]