As “The Wall Street Journal” writes, citing anonymous sources, Donald Trump and his advisers are planning a large-scale initiative aimed at dominating the Venezuelan oil industry. The plan being considered by the Americans involves taking partial control over the most important Venezuelan oil company – Petroleos de Venezuela SA. The US wants to take over and sell most of the oil produced by this company.
“If the plan succeeds, the U.S. could gain control of most of the oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere, given deposits in the U.S. and other countries where U.S. companies control production,” notes The Wall Street Journal.
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This is how Donald Trump wants to change the price of oil
According to two independent sources in The Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump even said that he “wants to reduce oil prices to $50 (PLN 180.50) per barrel, which is his preferred level.”
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If the US plan succeeds, Russia will have a serious problem. Firstly, this means in practice the elimination of Moscow's influence in Venezuela. Especially since the Kremlin previously supported the regime of Nicolas Maduro and used Venezuela as a bridgehead in the confrontation with the USA.
Donald Trump's plan threatens Russia
The economy of the country ruled by Vladimir Putin may experience great difficulties if the price of a barrel of oil on world stock exchanges drops from its current level of approximately $61. to Trump's desired amount of $50.
How big this difference is can be seen from the example of the Russian budget for 2025. It assumed that Moscow would sell approximately 1.68 billion barrels of oil. If the entire volume were sold at the current rate. Moscow would earn almost $102.5 billion (approx. PLN 370 billion). If the US managed to introduce and maintain a stock market price of $50. per barrel, the Russians would lose almost $18.5 billion from the reduction. (approx. PLN 67 billion). In 2025, oil and gas sales provided approximately 30%. all revenues to the state budget.
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Venezuela has the largest proven oil deposits in the world, estimated at approximately 303 billion barrels. That's about 20 percent. all the world's resources. However, extracting only 25 billion of them is economically viable.
Thanks to the former authoritarian president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, the Americans lost most of their investments in the local oil industry in 2007. The then leader decided to nationalize the industry. In this way, the assets of companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips came into the hands of the government.
