美能源部长：委内瑞拉17个油田获650亿桶储量开发协议

For Brim, one of Thailand's oldest established companies, growth does not begin with a deal. It begins with trust. Later in this podcast, hear how that approach has taken the company from Thailand to South Korea and the United States.

Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio news. US energy secretary Chris Wright is in Venezuela to announce a series of deals from oil producers. Bloomberg Washington correspondent Tyler Kendall is in Caracus with him. Tyler, thanks so much and a big welcome to our global Bloomberg television and radio audience. I'm Tyler Kendall here in Venezuela and pleased to say I am joined now by the US energy secretary Christopher Wright.

Secretary Wright, it's nice to see you here on the heels of the US government announcing this massive partnership to potentially develop up to 65 billion barrels of oil. Just to get a lay of the land, how quickly can you start production on those 17 fields? And more broadly speaking, how quickly will we see Venezuelan production output really ramp up?

Well, several of those fields, Tyler, are already in active development today. Nibet produces around 200,000 barrels of oil a day. They're the second largest private producer in Venezuela. So there's scale already in several of those fields. A number of them haven't seen any meaningful development yet. Some of them were at Russian partnerships or Chinese partnerships or frankly criminal partnerships. So this is to bring these fields into real commercial development.

But the speed of things, I mean so far we have gone at Trump speed in Venezuela. Country production's up 25%, exports are up 50%. We think even from production today already elevated, that could double by the end of this decade.

65 billion barrels is a massive number. It's my understanding that North American Blue Energy Partners can't develop this all on their own. Are you actively working or in talks to bring in other operators for these 17 fields?

Oh, I'm certain that will happen. But of course, the deal was just signed on Friday, so this is brand new. But yes, that reserve base is so large. Clearly, additional partnerships will be formed to develop those resources.

When it comes to these specific fields, China uh China is still owed billions of dollars uh from the Venezuelan government. Are there any assurances that the barrels from these fields aren't going to be used to pay back Chinese debt? Now look, Venezuela's got a lot of historical debt. And one of the major efforts going on right now is to do a debt restructuring to get things in order. Who are the real creditors? What is an arrangement going to go to move forward?

But no, these these fields will be developed for the benefit of the Venezuelan people, for the benefit of Americans, and for the benefit of global energy markets. President Trump's agendas drive down energy prices of all kinds across our economy and across the world. But just for clarity, China won't have any claims of production or revenue related to this deal that the US government struck.

No, they No, they will not.

Broadly speaking, people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg News that Venezuela is considering actually leaving OPEC. Have you had any of those discussions with the Venezuelan government, including when it comes to talks around this deal?

I have not uh discussed OPEC with the leaders of Venezuela.

Do you think that they should leave? uh that's a dialogue for the the sovereign state of Venezuela and that's a decision for them to make.

But I think part of this question is that wouldn't it be difficult for the US government to take all of this oil as part of the deal if Venezuela is subject to OPEC quotas? I know at the moment they're not, but if we're talking about ramping up so much production in this country, wouldn't they be down the line?

Again, that that's a separate issue. But also, Tyler, to be clear, we're not taking any oil here. This is a deal between a commercial enterprise that's operating in Venezuela today. We're just coming in as a partner, a passive partner in that role, but with very active controls to make sure highest business practices are followed and to work with them to bring more capital so we can accelerate the development of these reserves.

Venezuela today has about 17% of global oil reserves and just over 1% of global production. That's the problem of the last 25 years. But it's the opportunity for tomorrow.

Well, to this point, we've often heard from the administration about this three-phased approach when it comes to Venezuela that includes stability, economic viability, and then a democratic transition. Can you just talk to me about how you are viewing this part of uh the picture? How this helps to get Venezuela to that process of economic viability before we could see duly uh elected officials in in this country in terms of a democratic uh process.

Absolutely. Stability is key. You can see in the streets behind us here in Caracus, we have peace and stability in Venezuela. We need to make sure it stays that way. But to get economic growth, you have to have an investment climate that American companies and companies from around the world will come invest in this country. A US presence now an economic ownership interest in Venezuela, I think, will help grow that confidence and bring even more capital.

But today, the deal signed with Chevron, with ENI, the Italian multinational giant, and GE Vernova, these are all many billions of dollars of investment to grow their businesses in Venezuela. We expect many more such deals to come.

Is continued US investment or participation in this oil agreement conditional on any progress towards those democratic talks? I know that talks are currently underway.

No, no, the e the economic deals are separate than the political thing, but they're all part of the same hole. President Trump's sort of global agenda is to replace conflict with commerce all around the world. Um, and boy, I think we're off to an absolute swimming start in Venezuela. I'll tell you, the Venezuelan people are behind us. 25 years of communist corruption, poverty, 8 million people fleeing the country. Now, we're going to show the prospect of economic growth, of new jobs, bring inflation down, and bring our countries together.

And the growth in production in Venezuela simply tremendous for America. Our refineries were built based on Venezuelan oil. Now, as that crude production grows in quantity, that it's a win for Venezuela. It's a massive win for energy buyers in the United States. Whether you're buying g whether you're buying gasoline or diesel or flying out on a vacation or heating your home,

I think I know the answer to this. Just last question on this just to put a finer point on it. Would the US suspend any investment or oil purchases if the current political talks end up failing?

These are ways to make sure the political talks go forward. Things are progressing quite well on the political front. We've had reconciliation meetings with the previous leader of the of the Venezuelan Assembly from 11 years ago is meeting with the current assembly leader. We've seen the release of over a 100 political prisoners, additional from the early releases. The political talks are going well as well as the economic talks.

Another question on how this deal is coming together in terms of helping to refill the strategic petroleum reserve. Can you just take me through how that's going to work? Are are we looking at at swapping this crew to get it into the SPR?

Yeah, as you grow production and lower the price of oil, that enables everything to be better. But absolutely, you know, that the US strategic petroleum reserve, it's unlikely that we would put Venezuelan crude into our strategic petroleum reserve, but it's the largest market in the world, oil, as we did with the the conflict in Iran right now. We swapped barrels in time. We released a barrel at the peak of