By bizn_fun 
Venezuela sits on top of some of the world’s largest reserves.
But its production has dropped off sharply in recent decades due to disinvestment and mismanagement – not to mention US sanctions, which have limited its access to the global market.
At roughly 1 million barrels per day, the country’s production now accounts for less than 1% of global supply.
The White House has said it is working to “selectively” roll back those restrictions, but Trump officials have also made clear they intend to exert control over sales of Venezuelan oil, as a way to maintain leverage over the Venezuelan government.
The US this week has seized several oil tankers carrying sanctioned crude. US officials have said they are working to set up a sales process, which would deposit money raised into US-controlled accounts.
“We are open for business,” Trump said.
Chevron said it expected to bolster output, building on its current presence, while Exxon said it was working to send in a technical team to assess the situation in the coming weeks.
Repsol, which currently boasts output of about 45,000 barrels per day, said it saw a path to triple its production in Venezuela over the next few years under the right conditions.
Executives at other firms also said Trump’s promises of change would encourage investment and they were hoping to seize the moment.
“We are ready to go to Venezuela,” said Bill Armstrong, who leads an independent oil and gas driller. “In real estate terms, it is prime real estate.”
But analysts say meaningfully increasing production would take significant effort.
“They are being as polite as humanly possible, and being as supportive as they can, without committing actual dollars,” said David Goldwyn, president of the energy consultancy Goldwyn Global Strategies and former US State Department special envoy for international energy affairs.
Major oil companies like Exxon and Shell are “not going to invest single digit billions of dollars, much less tens of billions of dollars”, without physical security, legal certainty and a competitive fiscal framework, Goldwyn said.
“It’s not really welcome from an industry point of view,” he said. “The conditions are just not right.”
Still, he added that smaller companies might be more eager to jump in and help boost Venezuela’s oil production over the next year. But those investments would likely hover in the $50m range – far from the “fantastical” $100bn figure that Trump has floated.
Rystad Energy estimates it would take $8bn to $9bn in new investments per year for production to triple by 2040.
Trump’s suggested $100bn of investment into Venezuela could have a major impact – if it were to materialise, said the firm’s chief economist, Claudio Galimberti.
He said companies would only be likely to invest on that scale with subsidies – and political stability.
“It’s going to be difficult to see big commitments before we have a fully stabilised political situation and that is anybody’s guess when that happens,” he said.
Additional reporting by Danielle Kaye