Gordon Carrera

But the one country which is working with it and invested in it is China.

And most of its oil is going to China.

And that's where China's interests have lain.

So there is something which you can see also going on in the US calculation is we can get our companies in and get access to these riches.

and we can also squeeze the Chinese out of our backyard, and we can have potentially more control over the oil price globally if we have this access, which is also quite useful geopolitically when you're trying to put pressure on Iran and other countries.

So you can see the kind of advantages that oil does offer if you can get access to Venezuela.

But the one thing to say is that when you look at the reality of it,

Firstly, if you're a US oil company, are you going to rush in?

Well, not when you don't know what's going to play out politically in this country or for how long there'll be easy access to the market.

And secondly, it will take years to rebuild that infrastructure.

I mean, years and years and years.

So the idea that this is some kind of quick fix where you can suddenly move in, get access, you've suddenly got access to the oil and you can start making money from it and you can take some of that yourself and return some to the Venezuelan government to help the people.

I mean, none of that really makes sense in the short run.

I just don't think it kind of, it's maybe a long-term play at best.

Thank you for that.

Although I feel like your high school classes maybe could come in useful here.

Do you not remember it?

Could you not recite the Monroe Doctrine?

I think everyone has been brushing up slightly on it.

I think it's Wikipedia page has probably been busy in the last couple of months.