The U.S. has struck a deal to take majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves, nine months after the U.S. military abducted President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in a raid on Caracas and two months after The New York Times revealed that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has become the de facto viceroy of Venezuela, effectively controlling Venezuela’s finances, the distribution of its natural resources and its government. The new oil deal gives the Department of Defense a 35% stake in a joint U.S.-Venezuelan private company that now holds 100-year leases to 17 oil fields. It also gives the U.S. the right to buy some of the oil produced at cost — a major triumph for the Trump administration as the war on Iran depletes the United States’ strategic oil reserves. Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez claims U.S. investment in Venezuela’s oil industry will jumpstart the country’s floundering economy, but critics, including Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez, say the deal is not only “unfavorable to Venezuela” but also appears to violate the Venezuelan Constitution.

  • pineapple@lemmy.ml
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    16 hours ago

    I’m pretty sure big oil wants more oil. If govenment stops letting them take the oil they will just coup them again. Why does big oil not want this?

    • bedwyr@piefed.ca
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      15 hours ago

      They do, but they do risk analysis. Money put in, to money earned, and in a country like this, with the way this deal was made, they don’t believe the odds of the agreement standing for long enough to make them bank is good.

      • pineapple@lemmy.ml
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        15 hours ago

        The coups don’t cost them any money, it’s the tax payers that pay for that.

          • pineapple@lemmy.ml
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            12 hours ago

            They don’t have to extract the oil if they don’t want to, but clearly it’s profitable for them because they are extracting oil.

            • bedwyr@piefed.ca
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              11 hours ago

              They think they will lose on bet, but they are joining because the gangsterr king, that is the proez of usa, can’t make this shit up

                • bedwyr@piefed.ca
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                  45 minutes ago

                  Sorry idk how it ended up worded as such. The oil majors fear that they will lose control of the supply before they make profits on their billions of dollars investments they need to make.

                  The president kind of forced them into it. According to reuters.