President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States will “run” Venezuela until a political transition can occur, after the spectacular US military operation to remove Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from the country.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump told a press conference, adding that US forces were ready to conduct a second, “much bigger” wave of strikes if necessary.
A short time ago in the news conference with US President Donald Trump, a reporter asked how running Venezuela would be putting “America first”.
“I think it is,” Trump replied. “We want to surround ourselves with good neighbours. We want to surround ourselves with stability.”
“We have tremendous energy in that country, it’s very important that we protect it,” he said.
Trump said oil companies will pay directly for the cost of rebuilding Venezuela’s crude infrastructure. “They will be reimbursed for what they’re doing,” he said.
“We’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be,” the president said. “We’ll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries, many of whom are using it now, but I would say many more will come,” he said.
Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, sits on the largest oil reserves in the world. It nationalized the industry in 1976, seizing assets from ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron, said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.
Venezuela’s production peaked at 3.5 million barrels per day in the late 1990s, but has declined significantly since then, said Matt Smith, oil analyst at Kpler. The country’s current production stands at around 800,000 barrels per day, according to Kpler data.
China and Russia have a presence in Venezuela’s oil sector, Lipow said. Caracas approved in November a 15-year extension of joint ventures with Russian linked companies operating fields in Venezuela, the analyst said.
