Anatoly Kurmanaev

published this long screed on Truth Social, his media platform, where he alleged a wholesale theft of American oil by Venezuelan governments.

Venezuelan governments, according to him, has stolen American land, has stolen American oil, has defrauded American oil companies.

And he is writing a historical wrong.

The short answer is that we don't know.

It's a very incoherent text that does not neatly match on any historical events.

But throughout its history, Venezuela had several ways of nationalization.

Most recently, in 2007, where Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chavez, nationalized some of the oil fields, leading to the exodus of some American companies like ExxonMobil and CanocoPhillips, who have been suing the Venezuelan government ever since.

That's right.

And Trump announced...

and I quote him, a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela.

A few days later, his advisor, Stephen Miller, followed up with arguably even more incendiary tweets, alleging that the Venezuelan oil industry has been created by the toil and ingenuity of American people, and America wants its rights back.

That's right, Natalie.

The reality is a lot more complex than the narrative that the Trump administration is attempting to put forward.

During that last wave of nationalization, not all American companies have left.

Some have stayed.

And the biggest one being Chevron.

It's negotiated with Venezuelan governments.

And the deal that they have worked out, both with Nicolas Maduro and the government of the United States,

allows them to produce all the oil from the fields that are operating in Venezuela and give back half of that oil to the Venezuelan government and export the rest to the United States.

The thinking of the company has been that they're willing to swallow this temporary period of losses or reduced profits for the eventual balance evaluates the company in the events of a government change in Venezuela.