What Will U.S. Control Over Venezuelan Oil Look Like?

January 14, 2026

Marketplace

Andrew Campbell, Energy Institute Executive Director, discusses on Marketplace the economic and market realities of restarting Venezuela’s oil industry under U.S. oversight, emphasizing the high costs, poor oil quality, weak institutions, and limited impact such a move would have on U.S. gas prices or job creation.

“The global oil market right now is very well supplied. So that’s good for consumers, good for oil consumers. The prices are modest. But for a country like Venezuela, whose oil reserves are some of the lowest quality oil reserves in the world. That’s a really bad thing. Just even just producing it is very expensive due to the poor quality oil.”

Photo: marketplace.org