The US strike on Venezuela led to the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife as part of a wider campaign to combat narcotics trafficking in the region. The attack targeted networks accused of smuggling large amounts of cocaine and fentanyl into the United States.
After the controversial attack, the Trump administration unveiled plans to step up military operations against Latin American drug cartels.
The United States has had a complicated relationship with Venezuela over oil, political, and security disputes, with U.S. officials alleging that Venezuela’s oil sector has become embroiled in sanctions evasion, illegal transportation networks, and criminal activity.
Despite intense tensions surrounding Venezuela’s oil economy, the country has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but today earns a small fraction of the revenue it once earned from oil exports, Al Jazeera reported.
How much oil does Venezuela have?
Venezuela reportedly holds the largest known oil reserves, estimated at around 303 billion barrels (Bbbl) as of 2023, according to data from the Oil and Gas Journal, 2023 Worldwide Reserves and Production.
Saudi Arabia is second on the list with holdings of around 267.2 Bbbl, followed by Iran with 208.6 Bbbl and Canada with 163.6 Bbbl. Together, these four countries account for more than half of the world’s oil reserves.
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By comparison, the United States holds about 55 barrels of oil reserves, the ninth largest worldwide. That means Venezuela’s reserves are more than five times greater than Washington’s.
Globally, there are about 1.73 trillion barrels of proven oil reserves that we know can be economically extracted using current technology, the data show.
How much oil do Latin American countries export?
However, despite its huge reserves, Venezuela exports far less oil than it owns. Its oil exports were worth just $4.05 billion in 2023, according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).
This amount is far less than what other countries export, including Saudi Arabia ($181 billion), the US ($125 billion) and Russia ($122 billion).
In addition to oil, Venezuela exports smaller volumes of refined petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel, but these remain limited compared to its potential due to aging refinery infrastructure, technical problems and sanctions.
Is Trump on Venezuela’s oil reserves?
The United States is by far the world’s largest oil producer. However, most of its output is light crude, rather than the heavier grades typically required by its refineries.
This means that the US needs heavy oil, for which most of its refineries are set up. Given that overhauling the refineries would cost billions of dollars, there is little incentive to carry out such upgrades in the near future, Sky news reported.
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As a result, the United States remains heavily dependent on international trade to meet its demand for heavy oil. Most U.S. crude is exported abroad, while the U.S. continues to import more than 6,000 barrels of oil a day to supply the heavier grades that refineries in Texas and Louisiana are equipped to process, the report said.
All of these factors focus attention on Venezuela, which along with Canada and Russia holds some of the world’s largest reserves of heavy oil, fueling the president’s interest in gaining access to Venezuelan oil.
