President Trump has made clear he wants to revitalize Venezuela’s oil industry so he can use the cash to make the country great again — but the sector is in shambles after decades of plunder, talent flight and negligence as a result of socialist rule.
After capturing Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro over the weekend, Trump vowed that US companies would soon tap into the nation’s rich oil reserves, which Caracas says hold about 303 billion barrels worth of petrol, roughly 17% of the world’s supply.
Production has plummeted since hitting a high in 1997 — and the country produced just 900,000 barrels of oil per day in 2024, about 6% of what the US puts out.
Additionally, the oil companies’ holdings were nationalized and seized
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