How Much Oil Does Venezuela Have? Is Trump After The Latin American Country's Oil Reserves? Explained

(MENAFN- Live Mint) A US strike on Venezuela led to the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, as part of a broader campaign to combat narcotics trafficking in the region. The attack targeted networks accused of smuggling large quantities of cocaine and fentanyl into the United States.

Following the controversial attack, the Trump administration has unveiled plans to intensify military operations against Latin American drug cartels.

The United States has had a complex relationship with Venezuela due to disputes over oil, politics and security concerns, with US officials arguing that the Venezuela's oil sector became entangled in sanctions evasion, illicit shipping networks, and criminal activity.

Despite the heavy tensions around Venezuela's oil economy, the country holds the world's largest proven oil reserves, but today earns only a small fraction of the revenue it once made from exporting crude, Al Jazeera reported.

How much oil does Venezuela have?

Venezuela reportedly holds the largest known reserves of oi, which is estimated at around 303 billion barrels (Bbbl) as of 2023, according to data from Oil and Gas Journal, 2023 Worldwide Reserves and Production.

Saudi Arabia ranks second in the list, with holdings of around 267.2 Bbbl, followed by Iran at 208.6 Bbbl and Canada at 163.6 Bbbl. Together, these four countries account for more than half of the world's oil reserves.

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By comparison, the United States holds about 55 Bbbl of oil reserves, placing it ninth globally. This means that Venezuela's reserves are more than five times larger than those of Washington.

From a global perspective, there are about 1.73 trillion barrels of proven oil reserves that we know can be economically extracted using the current technology, the data shows.

How much oil does the Latin America country export?

However, despite holding vast reserves, Venezuela exports far less oil than it possesses. In 2023, its crude oil exports were worth just $4.05bn, according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC),

This quantity is far lesser than what other other countries export, including Saudi Arabia ($181bn), the US ($125bn), and Russia ($122bn).

In addition to crude, Venezuela exports smaller volumes of refined petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel, but these remain limited compared with its potential due to ageing refinery infrastructure, technical challenges and sanctions.

Is Trump after Venezuela's oil reserves?

The United States is by far the world's biggest oil producer. However, most of its output is light crude, rather than the heavier grades typically required by its refineries.

This means US needs heavy crude, which most of its refineries are set up to process. Since overhauling refineries would cost billions of dollars, there is little incentive to undertake such upgrades in the near future, Sky news reported.

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The result is that the United States remain heavily dependent on International trade to meet its demands for heavy oil. Most American crude oil is exported abroad, while the US continues to import more than 6,000 barrels of oil per day to supply refineries in Texas and Louisiana with the heavier grades they are equipped to process, the news report said.

All of these factors brings focus to Venezuela, which alongside Canada and Russia, holds some of the world's biggest reserves of heavy crude oil, therefore, sparking President's interest in getting access to Venezuela's oil.

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