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With customary fanfare Donald Trump announced an oil deal that is meant to give control to the U.S. government of vast reserves of Venezuelan crude. If the Venezuelan and Iranian fiascos wouldn't be so alarmingly clear, some level of credence could be given. But as with every Trump-related claim, this site is calling absolute BS on the whole thing. Firstly, Venezuela does not have the oil reserves that the Donald think it has. The much touted about figure is a complete fabrication of Hugo Chavez that has never been independently verified. It was a useful claim for Chavez, as it is now for Trump, and it is something that as soon as work starts on the ground it will become impossible to hide. It is not lost on long time observers of Venezuela's oil patch that Big Oil has, for the most part, kept its powder dry since Nicolas Maduro was removed. No one, apart from Alejandro Betancourt escaping justice, is rushing back.
Talking of Betancourt, who is supposedly the key player for the Trump administration to bring to fruition this massive deal, one thing is to ride on the coattails of Gazprom, Total and Equinor (which is what he has done thus far), and a very different thing is to build everything from scratch. On that note, Betancourt had the best opportunity to create a bulletproof reputation, when his Derwick Associates shell was contracted to solve Venezuela's electricity problems, and look at how that turned out. The size of the Damocles sword that Trump has over Betancourt is also massive. One phone call and Betancourt could be sharing a cell with Maduro or Saab in an instant.
Then there's the absolutely deranged promises that Trump has already made about this deal. We can categorically say that American oil reserves will not double, American oil supply will not increase anytime soon, gas prices will not decrease for Americans and the U.S. economy or the U.S. Dollar will not significantly improve in any material and measurable way thanks to "THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!"
The returns promised won't materialise, ever, because it's based on lies, deceit and a complete bunch of incompetents. Trump has gotten drunk with Furia Energy and is taking chavista numbers at face value. He will fail catastrophically, as everyone relying on chavistas has done before. We have said, and will reiterate, Trump is a crook alright, empowered by the office he now holds, but next to Delcy and Jorge, Diosdado, Betancourt and the rest of them, he has much to learn: staying indefinitely in office and away from law enforcement being the first one.
