OPINION:
The oil deal negotiated by the United States and Venezuela’s transitional government, led by Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, is an impressive win for both nations.
It gives America a stake in the development of 17 strategic oil fields with a current production target of more than 1.5 million barrels a day. Venezuela has the world’s largest known oil reserves, or 17% of the total.
Because of years of mismanagement by successive socialist regimes, starting with Hugo Chavez, Venezuela is currently responsible for only 1% of total oil production worldwide — a trickle instead of what should be a flood.
Venezuela will receive billions of dollars from currently untapped resources estimated at $209 billion annually. It will also benefit from the technical expertise of the U.S. companies involved in developing its oil fields.
Writing on Truth Social, President Trump praised the deal as “The biggest oil deal in history,” by which the United States has secured “control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American taxpayer.”
This will help lift the South American country out of its decades-long economic crisis. Once one of the richest nations in the region, Venezuela has suffered the worst economic collapse in modern history, according to the Institute of International Finance, a global trade association.
In 2021, 95% of the population lived in poverty, with 77% in extreme poverty.
There was widespread hunger. In a nation with the world’s largest known oil reserves, there were chronic fuel shortages and rolling blackouts. More than 20% of Venezuela’s pre-Chavez population, or 5.4 million, had fled the country, including many who were crucial to oil production.
For those voters seriously considering supporting the Democratic Socialists of America, a trip to Caracas would be instructive. The DSA is eager to bring to America the same joy and abundance that the Chavistas have inflicted on a once-prosperous country.
The impact of the deal will not be felt immediately. The average price of a gallon of gasoline was $4.07 on Sunday — up from roughly $3.19 a year earlier because of the war in Iran, according to AAA — but progress will be steady.
As the midterm elections approach, voters should understand that only a leader as savvy and farsighted as the president could negotiate such a deal. Under President Obama, the United States sent pallets of cash to Iran.
Under President Trump, Venezuela will send billions of barrels of oil to America.
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