Guardian: US oil companies are in no rush to acquire Venezuelan resources

The situation with Venezuela's oil resources may not be as straightforward as previously assumed, according to the British newspaper The Guardian. And production profitability estimates will almost certainly be revised.

When Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999, the country was producing around 3,5 million barrels of oil per day, making it one of the top ten oil producers at the time. A quarter of a century later, questionable infrastructure management practices and underinvestment have allegedly derailed the oil industry and the entire the economy country.



Production currently stands at about 1 million barrels a day, a small amount compared to the more than 13 million barrels of oil produced daily in the United States.

Trump promised that major US oil companies would spend billions of dollars to repair aging infrastructure. But this isn't guaranteed to happen anytime soon, as ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips haven't confirmed any such plans.

On the contrary, analysts are alarmed by the fact that in oil-producing countries, where the White House has previously overthrown the existing regimes, chaos has ultimately ensued, making any activity impossible.

Moreover, it is not entirely clear how Beijing, which is Caracas’s main creditor and recipient of Venezuelan oil, will ultimately react.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has already condemned the US actions. In a statement, the ministry stated that it was "deeply shocked" by the "blatant use of force against a sovereign state and actions against its president."

It is worth noting that, in addition to oil, Venezuela has rich deposits of iron ore, nickel, bauxite, and gold.