"President Donald Trump confirmed the startling attacks in Venezuela and the arrest of leader Nicolás Maduro were largely about its vast oil reserves-not just drugs and immigration-arguing that American oil companies will rebuild the Venezuelan crude industry to compensate the U.S. financially and enrich the Venezuelan people. 'We're going to have our very large United States oil companies-the biggest anywhere in the world-go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure,"
"Home to the world's largest proven oil reserves but less than 1% of global oil production, Venezuela is arguably the planet's biggest underachiever from a petroleum extraction perspective. Once a major player churning out nearly 4 million barrels of oil daily, Venezuela's volumes have plunged from 3.2 million barrels daily in 2000 down to about 960,000 barrels today under the authoritarian socialist regimes of Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, from a combination of mismanagement, underinvestment, and escalating U.S. sanctions."
U.S. actions in Venezuela and the arrest of Nicolás Maduro targeted the country's vast oil reserves rather than solely drugs or immigration. American oil companies are slated to invest billions to repair severely degraded oil infrastructure and restart crude production, with the goal of generating revenue for the U.S. and Venezuelans. Full recovery of production capacity is likely to take many years, possibly close to a decade, implying prolonged U.S. involvement. Delcy Rodríguez is positioned to lead Venezuela temporarily under U.S. directives until elections or a transition. Venezuela retains the world's largest proven oil reserves but produces under 1% of global output due to mismanagement, underinvestment, and sanctions.
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