President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Venezuela’s interim authorities will turn over 30 to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the U.S. This is to be sold at market price, and Trump ensured that the money will be “used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.”
Kenny Stein of Institute for Energy Research says that Venezuela technically has the world's largest proved oil reserves.
"Proved reserves mean that's oil that they know is there, and that they know how to produce," says Stein. "Venezuela has the largest proved reserves. It's about 300 billion barrels of oil. That's significantly larger even than Saudi Arabia, which is the next largest. I think it's about four times the proved reserves in the United States."
One issue with Venezuela's oil is that it is heavy crude, which means, as Stein explains, that it is very expensive to produce and that it does not flow very easily. Meanwhile, he also says that the infrastructure is not there to get things moving soon.
"The money needed for investment has been taken by the government to spend on whatever. The literal copper at sites was stripped by desperate people trying to feed their families. Pipelines were not maintained. If you don't keep the well maintained and flowing, it will basically be bricked,” says Stein. “It’s not something you can turn off for a while and turn back on."
Stein says this is why Chevron has been lobbying different U.S. presidential administrations for limited sanctions waivers on Venezuelan oil so that Chevron can continue to maintain their existing fields in Venezuela.
"All Chevron was doing was spend enough money to make sure they didn't become completely useless," states Stein.
To make matters worse, Stein doubts that people know exactly how bad the situation is with Venezuela's oil industry.
"Foreigners have not been operating there," says Stein. "Venezuelans was arresting foreign executives at times."
