Trump pushes to ramp up Venezuelan oil production after Maduro capture, experts warn of climate harm

After the capture and arrest of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, Donald Trump has sought to claim dominion over Venezuela’s oil reserves and orchestrate a ramp-up of drilling in the country, a move experts warned would be “terrible for the climate.” Trump has said US oil companies will “spend money, we are going to take back the oil” and be “reimbursed for everything we spend,” and his administration is pressing Venezuela’s interim government to remove a law requiring projects be half-owned by the state.

Venezuela holds the largest known reserves of oil in the world — equivalent to some 300bn barrels, according to the Energy Institute — and Trump has suggested companies such as Exxon and Chevron would invest, though leading US oil businesses have so far remained silent. Experts say boosting output could be both costly and highly carbon-intensive.

Raising production to 1.5m barrels a day from current levels of around 1m would produce about 550m tonnes of CO2 a year when burned, Paasha Mahdavi of UC Santa Barbara said, and Venezuela’s extra-heavy crude is particularly dirty. Energy Aspects estimated boosting output by 500,000 barrels a day would cost about $10bn and take roughly two years, while Rystad Energy said returning to 2m barrels a day by the early 2030s would require about $110bn.

Key Topics

World, Donald Trump, Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, Exxon, Chevron