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Sure, invest $100bn into an unstable country chasing a dying technology at the behest of a corrupt regime. Even for oil companies, Venezuela is too hot to touch.

So basically, it looks like he committed an international crime for oil and then won't even get the oil. No one should be surprised, I guess. Incompetence is the only constant.

What a fucking doofus Trump is. He couldn't consider the cost of his actions - and the likely fallout of the same - if his life depended on it.

Trump plans to use Venezuela’s huge crude reserves ‘to cut US oil price to $50 a barrel’ but companies need a market price of about $65 a barrel to break even on their production costs

Trump is an awful businessman.

Trump: anyone want to buy some stereos? They fell of a truck.

Oil companies: ehh….

When you account for inflation, oil prices today are in line with oil prices in the early 2000s. The price is too low, and the risk is too high for massive infrastructure spending that would extract more oil from Venezuela to be worth it.

Possibly, green energy technologies are now on a trajectory to overtake fossil fuels altogether - and they are already a factor in driving the price of fossil fuels (and therefore the profitability of many wells and mines) down substantially. If that happens, the long term value of Venezuela's oil reserves, without suitable infrastructure already built for extraction, could be close to zero.

In line with small government ideals, the best thing to do is let companies decide whether and how much to invest, but that won't be a headline worth showing off. So Trump is trying to make $100B happen, and believes that that (alone) will restore the Venezuelan economy to the way it was.

Why would they? It's a win-win. They either get significant tax payer money invested on their behalf, or the oil stays off market keeping their prices high.

So when he was on air force one and said that he'd spoken to the oil companies before the invasion. That was obviously a lie.

Is brain really is mush isn't it.

Who knew the guy who bankrupted a casino despite his daddy giving him millions to run it was bad at business?

Yeah, this is why every article that mentions Venezuelas huge oil reserves needs to also mention it is the costliest/ lowest margin oil too. Not all oil reserves are the same, the Saudis being able to pull a barrel out for $15 and sell it for $80 is a way different position then Venezuela pulling a barrel out for $60 and selling it for $70.

It is probably just part of the media manufacturing consent for regime change: "look how resource rich Venezuela is and how poor the people are, it must be because the evil Maduro regime" completely ignoring sanctions. Yeah mismanagement is part of the reason Venezuela is doing poorly but even if they were run perfectly with no corruption they still wouldn't be living like the Saudis.

It would be very funny and well deserved if they invested on his pressure and in a few years Venezuela just nationalises everything again.

The US taxpayers were never going to benefit from this blatant theft of Venezuelan oil at all. The profits were to be deposited directly into Trump & his families accounts after using taxpayer funds to secure the country. That's also the reason why he wants Greenland so he can enrich himself with stolen minerals, with the US military serving as his personal army.

They know that Trump is just going to keep the money, and have the US government pay for it all.

Also, it's one thing to support him, it's not even so bad to give him some money now and then, but he is demanding an enormous commitment, and they know that about the only thing you can trust a MAGA government to do is royally fuck it up.

They also see the writing on the wall, MAGA's days are numbered, they will be undone by their own virtuosic incompetence. Short term investment for quick gains is one thing, but long term investment in MAGA is a very bad idea.

Trump uses 'Art of the deal'.

It's not very effective.

The gist wasn't that he didn't want to invest. It was that he can't invest until Trump "fixes" problems with the country. Like its leadership and laws, etc.

This podcast episode explains very well Exxon's logic: https://pca.st/episode/d7084179-677a-4c82-ac90-c53cf28110c4

I never thought I would be on an oil company's side in a discussion in my life.

bro did not text the signal group chat about his Venezuela plans before doing it damn

Companies have usually avoided morally dubious actions in worlds spotlight, because it deters investors.

Not sure if anyone wants to touch Trumps fresh smelly turd... at least directly and visibly.

I really think this all comes down to a belief that Trump and many Americans hold, that oil is irreplaceable. They have convinced themselves, or have been convinced by others, that civilizations can't exist without oil, and fossil fuels more broadly. Because of this belief, they're betting hard on oil and gas. They want to take control of as much of the world's remaining oil reserves as possible, both to secure oil for ourselves but also to restrict access to adversaries, like China.

But this belief is wrong. Civilizations can exist without fossil fuels, or at least with very minimal fossil fuel use, especially for energy. Fossil fuels are very inefficient and nonrenewable, in addition to being highly polluting. Renewables, like solar and wind, are much more efficient, especially for electricity generation. To generate electricity with fossil fuels, you have to extract the material from the ground, refine it, transport it, then burn it to boil water to generate steam to turn a turbine to generate the electricity. There are a lot of steps there, and a lot of the energy is lost in the process. With solar and wind, electricity is generated at the source. It's true that solar panels and wind turbines are not very efficient at turning the wind and sunlight into electricity, but once the electricity is generated, all you have to do is transmit it to where it is either stored or used. Some energy is lost in transmission, but that's true of electricity generated from fossil fuels, too. Renewables are simply more efficient. And, as the name implies, they are renewable. The sun will continue to shine and the wind will continue to blow for a very long time.

So as the world wakes up this realization, the world will continue to transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewables. That will reduce the demand for fossil fuels. The oil companies know this, that's why they're not in any great hurry to go and spend billions of dollars to significantly increase oil production. If they dramatically increase oil production, but the overall demand for oil doesn't also increase significantly, the price for their product will fall. They don't want to sell their product for less money, because that will reduce their profits. Lowering the price of oil sounds great to consumers of the product, who want lower gas and diesel prices, but the companies selling it don't want that. Companies want to sell their product for the highest price possible, so they can maximize their profit.

The US is betting on a fossil fuel future, but we're going to lose that bet. We've convinced ourselves, or have been convinced, that oil especially is irreplaceable and that renewables/electrification are a scam. We're wrong. An electrified world powered primarily by renewables is the future. The longer we continue down this misguided path, the further behind the rest of the world we will fall.

How much will he pocket?

Yep the oil in Venezuela is not high grade so it's not profitable in the short term even if long term control is important for oil based business.