Gordon Carrera

But in this case, it's partly true, I think, isn't it?

There is an element of truth that oil is a factor on it.

I mean, President Trump has been explicit about that.

Yeah, and I think it's worth a little bit of background on how the US and Venezuela, when it comes to oil, because some of those around the administration have been saying that US oil rights were stolen by Venezuela.

Now, there is actually kind of, there's something to that, even if it's not quite true, you know, maybe to the extent to which they're claiming.

Because the, I mean, the Venezuelans nationalized their oil industry back in the 70s, which a lot of countries did.

But US companies were still in there investing and partnering.

for the following years.

But then under Hugo Chavez in the 2000s, they were kicked out and their assets were basically appropriated by the state.

And so since then, US companies have been arguing about the compensation they are owed by the Venezuelans for having taken over their assets.

And this has been going through international courts as they argue about the amount that's owed, billions of dollars, and the Venezuelans saying, well, we're not going to pay or we can't afford to pay that.

I mean, Chevron, as you said, is still operating there, but under a license.

But there is this issue which has been kind of going back and forth about compensation that the US says it's owed by Venezuela.

And then there's the possibility of getting, you know, both compensation and getting back into the business of Venezuela because it has got really, you know, it's astonishing really to think it actually has the world's largest proven reserves of oil.

I mean, it's not Saudi Arabia, which you'd have thought would have that, but it's Venezuela, which has about 70% of the total global reserves of oil.

I mean, it's astonishing and yet is actually pulling relatively little out of the ground at the moment.

I think, you know, it's gone down from three to four million barrels a day to one million or less because the infrastructure is crumbling and is in such a bad state.

So, you know, you've got this kind of very tempting thing of a huge reserve, but which is not being exploited.

In Iran.

I think one interesting fact, though, is that the Venezuelan oil industry has been massively suppressed.