Oil for Venezuela

Many Venezuelans see the deal giving the United States control of roughly one-fifth of their country's oil reserves as a surrender. The deal holds the potential to generate billions of dollars for an economy wrecked by years of mismanagement.

Chevron is the largest foreign oil operator in Venezuela. The deal will expand its footprint at a time of political and economic uncertainty for Venezuela.

As part of the deal, the U.S. is creating a private company as a joint venture with North American Blue Energy Partners, owned by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt.

To understand what’s happening and what it means for U.S. consumers and the American energy industry, The Conversation U.S. checked in with Amy Myers Jaffe, a research professor at New York University and senior fellow at Tufts University who studies global energy markets and the geopolitics of oil.

After returning to power, President Donald Trump halted and then changed the terms of Chevron’s operations in Venezuela, contending that it minimizes the company’s financial transfers to the country. Rather than funneling dollars into Venezuela directly, Chevron now hands part of the oil it produces to the Venezuelan government, which continues to own the oil fields.

The Trump administration has granted Chevron a six-month license to restart oil production and exports in Venezuela, reversing a previous ban that was part of a broader sanctions campaign against President Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian government, sources told several national news outlets.

Since COVID-19 is a global pandemic, more Americans are asking a relevant question: In life-and-death emergencies like this, should the U.S. loosen…