“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, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”
President Donald Trump revealed Saturday that United States oil companies will assume control of Venezuela’s oil reserves, with the companies investing billions of dollars to overhaul the country’s oil industry.
“As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing, by comparison to what they could have been pumping. And what could have taken place,” Trump said at a press conference Saturday.
“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, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” he added.
Trump also indicated that the US was prepared to carry out a second military operation if necessary to secure these efforts.
The announcement follows a military operation in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of the country’s leader, Nicholas Maduro. Prior to the strike, the US had seized multiple oil tankers off the country’s coast.
https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/2007517770658050179?s=20
According to the US Energy Information Administration, Venezuela holds 303 billion barrels of crude oil, the largest proven reserves in the world, accounting for roughly one-fifth of the global total, with Saudi Arabia second. The country’s heavy, sour crude requires specialized equipment to produce, and it is used in products including diesel, asphalt, and heavy equipment.
The planned investments could make Venezuela a larger global oil supplier and create new opportunities for US oil companies. A report by CNN noted that PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil and gas company, says its pipelines have not been updated in 50 years. It added that the cost to update its infrastructure would cost $58 billion.
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