委内瑞拉卡比马斯——100多年前，这里喷涌而出的石油催生了委内瑞拉的能源产业。如今，卡比马斯正是美国试图重振该国石油产业的核心地带。
CABIMAS, Venezuela—An oil gusher discovered more than 100 years ago gave birth to Venezuela’s energy industry near this once-booming city on the shores of Lake Maracaibo. Today, Cabimas is ground zero for the U.S. effort to resurrect the sector.
这座拥有35万人口的城市如今宛如石油工业的废墟：放眼望去，到处都是扭曲变形的钻井塔和摇摇欲坠的海上石油平台。从马拉开波湖中打捞上来的渔网上沾满了凝固的原油，破损的水下管道还不断冒出天然气。湖岸则被黑色的石油覆盖。
This city of 350,000 resembles an oil-industry graveyard. Mangled drill towers and collapsing offshore platforms are visible as far as the eye can see. Hardened globs of crude cling to fishing nets pulled from the lake, and natural gas gurgles up from busted underwater pipelines. The lake’s shores are black with petroleum.
在附近，孩子们就在那些因每天长达12小时的停电而时常停转的抽油机之间打棒球。
Nearby, children play baseball between leaky pump jacks that often stop working because of power outages that last up to 12 hours a day.
许多当地居民热切期盼着美国投资者能前来，为修复该国破败的石油基础设施投入资金。他们至今仍怀念过去的繁荣岁月：那时石油工人能住上跨国石油公司提供的住房，周边社区配有游泳池、体育俱乐部和高尔夫球场，湖面清澈见底，水中生物也生机盎然。
Many residents here say they can’t wait for American investors to arrive and start plowing money into rebuilding the country’s dilapidated oil infrastructure. Many remember the boom years of old when oil workers enjoyed housing provided by international oil companies, along with neighborhoods with swimming pools, sports clubs and golf courses, and a lake with clean water and healthy marine life.