What does President Trump plan to do with Venezuela’s oil?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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What are President Trump's plans for Venezuelan oil?
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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.
I'm Frank Ordonez. I also cover the White House.
And NPR business correspondent Camila Dominovsky is here. Hi, Camila. Hi, y'all. So today on the show, we are talking about oil, specifically how President Trump plans to use Venezuelan oil and whether those plans can give him the political boost he's hoping for. Let's start with the basics. President Trump put out a post on social media earlier this week talking about... keeping oil. What is he talking about and where is this oil coming from?
Yeah. So the president referenced 30 to 50 million barrels of oil that he said would be controlled by the U.S., sold by the U.S. And it's important to note that Venezuela, there's been a lot of talk about how oil production there has collapsed, but the country is still making oil, right? Yeah. a million barrels a day, a little less than that. The state-owned oil company, PDVSA, is active. There are international oil companies. Chevron is the only American one, but they are working in the country. And so the country has been making this oil, but the oil has been under US sanctions, which make it more difficult to sell. And more recently, the US has actually been blockading ships and preventing exports from Venezuela.
So What that means is that the oil that Venezuela has been producing, a lot of it has not been able to get out and it has been building up in storage. So when the president talks about these 30 to 50 million barrels, that, based on what officials have said, that's what they're talking about. This oil that couldn't leave the country because of the blockade built up in storage. It's not safe. new oil. This isn't massively increasing production in Venezuela, like the president has also talked about. We can talk about that more later. This is the oil that the country has been making already and has not been able to sell.
Can you just, like, help me understand? Because... Millions of barrels of oil sounds like a lot of oil. How much oil is this?
Yeah. So it's well over a month of production from Venezuela. It's a few days worth of U.S. oil consumption. So we burn through that much oil in just a few days. And it's worth a chunk of change. Even at a discount, you're talking well over a billion dollars worth of oil. And I'll also note this oil, if it weren't for the blockade, would be going on to international markets, almost certainly to China. A lot of Venezuelan oil has been being sold to China, evading sanctions, selling at a steep discount. So Venezuela is not making as much money as it would have been. That was part of the point of the sanctions. But so this is really redirecting that oil.
And Franco, do you have a sense of what President Trump is hoping to accomplish with this oil. What is his goal with bringing this oil to the U.S.? What does he want to do with it?
I mean, I think the 30 to 50 million barrels oil, I think largely, I think this is more of a messaging thing at this point. I mean, Trump's always been obsessed with oil. It has always been a big part of his agenda. He talks about energy dominance all the time. But for this specific oil, this 30 to 50 million barrels, I think this is more of a message to Americans. Look, this was not just foreign intervention.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:35
2
What are President Trump's plans for Venezuelan oil?
0:35–6:28
3
How much oil is Venezuela currently producing?
6:28–11:46
4
What is the significance of the 30 to 50 million barrels of oil?
11:46–16:17
5
What are Trump's political motivations regarding Venezuelan oil?
16:17–18:13