Trump's Venezuela oil deal faces steep hurdles: Analysis

US President Donald Trump says the US has struck the "biggest oil deal in world history" with Venezuela, claiming US companies have secured majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves at no cost to taxpayers, a move he says could more than double US reserves and lower fuel prices. Energy economist Ed Hirs, of the University of Houston, joins Al Jazeera from New York to assess the claim. Hirs says having reserves in the ground is not the same as extracting them. Venezuela has repeatedly nationalised foreign oil assets, and most major companies still see the country as uninvestable given weak rule of law, including recent imprisonment of oil executives. Production has collapsed from over 3 million barrels a day to roughly 1 million, and extraction costs run $70 to $75 a barrel. Hirs notes that any deal is likely to outlast the Trump administration, and that America's own oil industry, already producing over 14 million barrels a day, won't welcome a government-backed competitor. He rejects the idea that the claim itself functions as an insurance policy, saying that would require treating Venezuela like a US colony, which isn't happening. Subscribe to our channel: bit.ly
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