President Donald Trump stated that he is counting on American firms in the recovery of Venezuela’s ruined oil sector.
However, the world’s largest proven oil reserves, however enticing they may seem, could entail greater hazard than benefit for American oil giants, energy industry observers informed CNN.
Extracting oil from Venezuela would necessitate mending the nation’s devastated petroleum infrastructure, which Trump himself estimated would cost billions of dollars. And oil prices are not reaching levels that would make such investments easy choices. Furthermore, refining Venezuela’s unique grade of crude oil is an expensive undertaking on its own.
This would be hard to market in a politically steady nation, let alone one undergoing a political upheaval after the overthrow of an authoritarian president.
“This whole situation leaves more unknowns than certainties about the future political landscape in Venezuela, and that will be foremost in the minds of corporate and industry planners keen to explore good prospects there,” noted Clayton Sigger, a senior fellow with the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
On Saturday, U.S. special operations forces executed a large-scale operation, successfully apprehending Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores and transporting them to New York. Both were charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine trafficking conspiracy, and weapon-related offenses.
Trump announced that the U.S. would “administer” the country until a secure leadership is established. On the same day, Venezuela’s Supreme Court named Delcy Rodríguez—who oversees the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.—as interim president.
Trump claimed that oil companies would compel Venezuela to realize its lost potential as a major global oil producer.
“Our very large U.S. oil companies, the biggest in the world, will spend billions, fix the heavily damaged infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start bringing in revenue for the country,” Trump asserted.
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