特朗普委内瑞拉石油交易细节模糊，1000亿美元缺口待解

There isn't a whole lot of information, and there's not a whole lot of clarity about what is going on here. Um, there are bunch of different conflicting reports. In fact, um, the best bit that I've been able to to really understand is that it seems that the US is going to take a 35% passive stake in a private company that is run by a Venezuelan who has, uh, done some deals for oil, uh, in Venezuela before. Um, and then ultimately that would give them preferential rights to buy about 20% of the production, um, that comes from these investments at cost.

Uh, now, when the government is doing this, what is it? Uh, it seems as though this is coming from the Pentagon's office of Strategic Capital. Um, which means it's a little unclear. Does that mean that the Pentagon is purchasing the oil for the the armed forces? We really have no idea. Um, but that seems to be the most information we have right now. Um, does it mean that the United States is seizing Venezuela's oil, uh, fields?

No, no, it does not. Uh, it doesn't seem to mean that at all. Um, it does seem to mean that there will be some sort of U.S. investment in foreign oil fields, which is, I would say, it's not a new concept. This was definitely something that was floated in the 1940s. In 1943, actually, President Franklin Roosevelt, uh, wanted to buy, uh, a stake in Saudi Arabia's, uh, oil field from Aramco. Uh, they didn't end up doing that, mostly because, um, the companies that owned it didn't like the price.

Uh, they wanted more money. Right. But, um, so I'm not saying it's without precedent, but it's certainly not something that has been done. Okay, so President Trump said that this deal had been reached with Chelsea Rodriguez. She is the interim president of Venezuela. And maybe that raises a lot of questions, because interim president means there might be a more permanent president later on who can then turn around and unravel whatever deal um, Trump and Rodriguez has put together.

And we've seen that in the past. There has been this history of, um, foreign oil companies, U.S. and European operators, uh, seeing their assets seized and nationalized during previous times, like in the 2000. Exactly. And this is one of the major hurdles. Um, I would say it's it's probably the biggest hurdle to getting, uh, foreign oil companies and foreign capital invested and interested in producing, uh, Venezuelan oil.

The second is Venezuela's oil itself is very difficult and costly to produce, but you definitely see people more interested. If there wasn't this long history of the Venezuelan government basically either not honouring contracts, changing the terms or outright nationalizing, um, you know, property and things from these former companies, including Chevron and Exxon and other major, uh, international oil companies that do have the expertise and the knowledge and the money to really go in and do this kind of work in Venezuela.

So, um, so this is absolutely an issue. It's also seems could potentially be in contradiction to the Venezuelan constitution. Um, it depends, I think, whether or not this is viewed as ownership over Venezuelan resources. Uh, I'm sure Jose Rodriguez would argue it's not. But, um, of course that depends. Is she really going to have the final say here. How much control does she really have and can she maintain that control?

Is the US willing to back her her control. So it's all kind of entwined in the politics of it. The other issue is that she's basically basing this on we're going to see concrete benefits for our country from this deal. And that's very unlikely to happen in the short term because these are oilfield, some of which have not been previously developed. And so it's going to take a long time to actually bring that oil to market.

Ellen, what has been the history with Chevron in Venezuela? Have they been investing capital? Do they have they said they will invest more capital. Uh, because I just feel like a lot of these oil companies have stayed away from this part of the world. Well, Chevron has been invested in Venezuela for a very long time. In fact, um, you know, during the Chavez era, that was when, uh, things began to get even more, uh, nationalized.

And so Chavez basically kind of turned the tables and said, look, you've got to, um, you know, follow these new terms that I'm laying out if you want to continue to produce here. And some companies like Exxon were like, that's it. We're out or we're going, we're just going to cut our losses. Chevron, uh, actually did stay for quite a while until, uh, they were more recently kind of forced out, um, you know, by sanctions.

The U.S. government imposed sanctions on Venezuela. Uh, you know, years ago. And then they basically had to leave, and they've only been allowed to get oil according to any kind of sanctions waivers or special licenses from the government. So while Chevron, I think, would like to at the very least recoup its losses from Venezuela. They're still quite hesitant, I think, and they're still looking for assurances that if they do invest more time, money into Venezuelan, Venezuela's oil, that, um, you know, they're not going to experience losses from it again in the long run.

Venezuela's oil resources are valuable and will be valuable to develop. The world does need this oil, but a company would look at that and say, this is basically like the last oil. I'm going to want to go in and develop without some kind of political and economic and financial assurance from the US government.