President Donald Trump says his administration has entered a sweeping agreement with Venezuela that, if realized, could give the U.S. access to vast amounts of the South American country’s untapped oil reserves, at cost.
This seems like a much bigger deal than the news has portrayed. It seems like Trump feels like he can’t do fun things (bomb Iran) because of the oil stockpile. So he is doing anything he can to try to show markets that he has oil so he can get back to doing fun.
However, “The bulk of the country’s petroleum is made up of heavy, sour crude oil—a dark, gloopy, acidic substance that is both high in sulfur and relatively difficult to recover. This type of crude oil is very useful in asphalt production, but it needs to undergo a longer refining process to be made into more lucrative products, such as gasoline and other fuels, compared with lighter crude oil” https://www.britannica.com/science/How-Much-Oil-Does-Venezuela-Have-and-How-Much-Is-Accessible
If our processes are set up to process one type of oil, can we even switch to another type? How many refineries can do it? How much is wasted in the process and what is the rate? This seems like everything trump does: effective on a first glance but the moment you start thinking or asking questions it falls apart
Actually, most US refineries are set up to refine that heavy goop. It is not dissimilar to Alberta’s tar sands product (bitumen). And most US oil comes from Canada.
Him getting this oil is a piece of leverage against Canada and trying to remove a card from Canada’s deck against him taking our country.
This seems like a much bigger deal than the news has portrayed. It seems like Trump feels like he can’t do fun things (bomb Iran) because of the oil stockpile. So he is doing anything he can to try to show markets that he has oil so he can get back to doing fun.
Consumption of US is 19.4 million barrels a day.
https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/united-states/oil-consumption So 65 billion seems like a lot.
However, “The bulk of the country’s petroleum is made up of heavy, sour crude oil—a dark, gloopy, acidic substance that is both high in sulfur and relatively difficult to recover. This type of crude oil is very useful in asphalt production, but it needs to undergo a longer refining process to be made into more lucrative products, such as gasoline and other fuels, compared with lighter crude oil” https://www.britannica.com/science/How-Much-Oil-Does-Venezuela-Have-and-How-Much-Is-Accessible
If our processes are set up to process one type of oil, can we even switch to another type? How many refineries can do it? How much is wasted in the process and what is the rate? This seems like everything trump does: effective on a first glance but the moment you start thinking or asking questions it falls apart
Actually, most US refineries are set up to refine that heavy goop. It is not dissimilar to Alberta’s tar sands product (bitumen). And most US oil comes from Canada.
Him getting this oil is a piece of leverage against Canada and trying to remove a card from Canada’s deck against him taking our country.
And it has the subtle weakness of a tanker and port bottleneck
Also, as CBC pointed out this morning, this is basically the same annoucement he did when the US first took Venezeula.
Since then, apparently none of the oil companies have moved into Venezeula, so this might be an attempt to get any traction there.
“Venezuela’s oil exports fell slightly to 1.16 million barrels per day in July from 1.2 million bpd the previous month as the country drained fewer inventories, but exports to the U.S. jumped to some 786,000 bpd, the highest since early 2019, shipping data showed on Monday.” https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/venezuelas-oil-exports-fell-slightly-july-cargoes-us-rose-2026-08-03
No new projects are shovel in dirt.
Lots of promises and deals in thr making with Venezeula