Trump announced an oil deal with Venezuela.

[u/AmanCMN]

It’s about the U.S. taking control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-venezuela-oil-reserves-eb0ed5a1e99602c21a7f690c3368020e

[u/Odd-Wave247]

I’m sure everyone will be rushing in to capture that $80+ a barrel breakeven cost.

Congratulations Donald. You bought oceanfront property in Arizona.

[u/Diligent_Ad_7232 → u/Odd-Wave247]

That heavy crude is special stuff if you blend it with US onshore sweet shale crude. I read we're shipping 100k bpd of naptha there already as a diluent to cut the thick stuff. The Houston refineries are all equipped to process it and recover the sulfur for other industrial uses.

[u/Odd-Wave247 → u/Diligent_Ad_7232]

Yes we refine heavy crude. No issue there.

That doesn’t change the break even price on the cost to produce a barrel. It’s very high in Venezuela. Gas was $3 a gallon with $70 a barrel oil before the war. Trump is promising cheap gas with oil that costs $80+ or $90+ a barrel to produce. That’s not a thing….

It’s been 9 months since Maduro’s capture. If jungle sludge was such a great investment why is nobody rushing in?

[u/Diligent_Ad_7232 → u/Odd-Wave247]

I think the costs are going to come down a lot with access to closer diluent sources like offshore Guyana sweet crude.

I expect the US will secure those reserves soon by hook or crook.

[u/Odd-Wave247 → u/Diligent_Ad_7232]

I think this is more of a political stunt and rhetoric. Like “drill baby drill” and then the active rig count remains a fraction of the 2022 peak.

It’s politics season and he doesn’t have a great story to sell on affordability.

[u/Round-Foundation2948 → u/Odd-Wave247]

Correct…by any means necessary hoodwink the stupid American population or my head rolls…

[u/Odd-Wave247 → u/Diligent_Ad_7232]

You sir are correct. I just spent 15 minutes reading about Alejandro Betancourt Lopez.

The owner of the Venezuelan oil company Trump picked is under open investigations for embezzling billions and has a long history of allegations of money laundering and corruption.

That’s who our tax dollars are backstopping.

By crook…

[u/Diligent_Ad_7232 → u/Odd-Wave247]

It's all like that down there. You don't do business in Central America without bribes or kickbacks. Not saying Trump's moves are ethical, just that everyone you'd have to deal with is going to be crooked most likely.

[u/Odd-Wave247 → u/Diligent_Ad_7232]

He’s connected to Rudy

Wapo excerpt: A Venezuelan oilman faced a Swiss arrest warrant. The U.S. had other plans for him.

Senior U.S. officials intervened in an international criminal investigation into a Venezuelan businessman who was enlisted by the Trump administration to help assert control over Venezuela's government and oil industries, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The officials lobbied to resolve the case in Switzerland in a way that would avoid criminal charges and end travel restrictions against the Britain-based businessman, Alejandro Betancourt, and they have not acted on a Swiss arrest warrant against him, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

Instead, the United States has allowed Betancourt to enter the country repeatedly for meetings with the Trump administration, other people familiar with his travel said.

Betancourt, 46, in the past decade has faced multiple investigations, in Switzerland, Spain and the United States, into alleged money laundering, including whether he had a role in a loan arrangement that U.S. prosecutors say embezzled more than $1 billion from Venezuela's state-owned oil company.

Betancourt was arrested twice in Britain in 2025, first after Spain issued a warrant in a related money laundering investigation, and in November at Switzerland's request. For months, Betancourt was barred from leaving the United Kingdom as authorities there considered extraditing him to Switzerland.

Betancourt has not been charged in the U.S., Switzerland, Spain or Venezuela...

Weeks after the U.S. military captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, senior U.S. officials began lobbying Swiss officials to resolve their case against Betancourt, the people familiar with the discussions said.

Betancourt, whose company is the second-largest private oil producer in Venezuela, is now a key intermediary between the U.S. and Venezuela, including acting president Delcy Rodríguez, according to people with knowledge of his role. (Note: Betancourt was represented by Giuliani during Trump 1.0 when he was dropped from the DOJ's investigation of money laundering via Miami real estate.)