A gas flare behind a coking coal pile at the Jose Antonio Anzotegui Petrochemical Complex in Barcelona, Anzoategui state, Venezuela, on Monday, May 22, 2023. (Carolina Cabral/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
Venezuela, a country almost twice the size of California, sits atop extraordinary wealth.
With more than 300 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, Venezuela holds more crude than established energy heavyweights like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait. The Latin American country’s reserves are nearly quadruple those of the United States.
Once a major oil producer, the country pumped about 3.5 million barrels a day in the late 1990s. Since then, its oil industry has sharply deteriorated, with production falling to roughly 800,000 barrels a day, according to energy analytics firm Kpler.
A key reason: much of Venezuela’s oil is difficult and expensive to extract.
The country’s reserves are dominated by heavy and extra-heavy crude, which is costly to extract and relies on specialized equipment and refining capacity that have deteriorated after years of underinvestment, U.S. sanctions and political instability.
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Similar dynamics have unfolded in countries such as Iran and Libya, where turmoil, financial distress and crumbling infrastructure have kept vast reserves locked underground.
As a result, scaling operations back up would require significant time, capital and technical expertise, with any production increase likely to be gradual rather than immediate.
President Donald Trump addresses the nation following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. (Alex Brandon/AP)
"We are going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken oil infrastructure and start making money for the country," Trump said during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago.
It remains unclear whether U.S. energy companies are prepared to do so. American firms have yet to say whether they plan to return to Venezuela to resurrect an oil industry hollowed out by years of neglect.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images)
As U.S. and European companies withdrew from Venezuela, Russia, China and Iran expanded their footprint in the country’s energy sector, using financing, fuel shipments and technical support to maintain influence.
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That shift has also reshaped how Venezuelan oil is traded. Sanctions have fueled the rise of so-called "ghost ships," nondescript oil tankers that disable tracking systems to quietly move Venezuelan crude to foreign buyers outside traditional markets. The opaque trade has reduced transparency in global oil flows while helping Caracas sustain exports despite financial isolation.
For the Trump administration, the outcome has underscored an uncomfortable trade-off: restricting access to U.S. markets can limit revenue for sanctioned governments, but it can also push them deeper into the orbit of strategic rivals, turning energy policy into a front line of geopolitical competition.
Amanda covers the intersection of business and politics for Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/3-key-takeaways-from-trumps-push-put-us-oil-firms-back-venezuela