Where’s All that Oil from Venezuela?

Now that the U.S. is “running” Venezuela after spending $4.7 billion on “Operation Southern Spear” to steal the country’s oil – where the heck is it? It’s not turning up as gasoline at your corner gas station.

Venezuela has 303 billion barrels of proven reserves, the largest in the world. That’s one-fifth of the world’s total crude oil reserves, exceeding Saudi Arabia.

However, Chevron is bringing in only 250,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan crude. This is a drop in the bucket because the U.S. consumes 20 million barrels of oil per day across all uses.

Venezuelan heavy crude is low‑quality (very dirty, heavy, and high in sulfur), making it difficult to refine. U.S. Gulf Coast refineries can’t process more heavy oil and already have long‑term supply contracts with other producers, so they can’t swap in Venezuelan crude without displacing other barrels.

Venezuelan oil will not cut U.S. energy prices

Venezuelan oil will have to be resold abroad or stored (as in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve), rather than all being used directly in U.S. gasoline production.

Meanwhile, the average price of regular gasoline in Tucson ranges from $4.25 to $4.73 per gallon. But more Venezuelan oil does not equal cheaper gas. Republicans have no real plan to bring down prices for Arizona drivers.

The Venezuelan war started with Trump’s plans to have a military presence “as it pertains to oil.” Trump said, “We need total access. We need access to oil and to other things in their country.”

The cost to kidnap Venezuela’s dictator and blockade its coastline was $4.7 billion, according to Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs. Trump’s “Operation Southern Spear” was a floating money pit to sink speedboats instead of lowering gas prices or helping families here at home.

We’ve spent about $4.7 billion—enough to buy roughly a billion gallons of gas for American drivers—but we only paid for another vanity military escapade.