Erika Barris

Leaving just one American oil company, which worked out a deal with Chavez and stuck it out.

Why did they make that choice?

Yeah.

When Venezuela's economy started flagging, Chavez realized he needed foreign help with oil production.

He looked around and

There's Chevron.

Chevron got a contract to keep drilling, keep exporting.

Chevron has somehow managed to walk the line between the Venezuelan government, its oil fields, and the U.S.

government.

The idea is like, well, if we leave, we're clearing the way.

So you may as well allow us to keep operating.

So you can see why Chevron was the only American company that was well-placed when Trump announced that the U.S.

is now running Venezuela and taking over its oil.

And you can see why when President Trump excitedly suggested to all the other major American oil CEOs that they invest billions back into Venezuela, the excitement was not exactly mirrored back.

This is how the CEO of Exxon responded.

Also, Venezuela's oil fields have gotten less productive.

It is harder to get oil out of them.

And it would take more than $100 billion to get the oil industry in Venezuela back to where it was.

Is the equipment up to date?

Right.