Trump Has Big Plans for Venezuela’s Oil. Are They Realistic?

For more than a decade, most major Western oil companies have had little access to Venezuela’s reserves, the world’s largest, owing to a wave of nationalizations of their operations in the country in the mid-2000s and subsequent US sanctions. President Donald Trump intends to change that.

By removing Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, in an audacious Jan. 3 military strike and blockading its oil exports, the Trump administration aims to take control of the country’s dilapidated oil industry. Trump is urging Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips and others to invest $100 billion to rebuild the sector. He says this will create “tremendous wealth” for the American people, the Venezuelan people — and of course the oil companies.