In an interview with CGTN Europe’s Global Business, Dr. Carole Nakhle, CEO of Crystol Energy, spoke about President Trump’s ambitions for US oil companies in Venezuela, and what this could mean for investment timelines, sanctions, and global oil market risk.
Key takeaways:
An 18-month timeline is extremely short for conventional oil projects, which require long term capital and multi year delivery, making Trump’s ambitions for Venezuela unrealistic
Venezuela’s oil potential is real, but investors will weigh high costs and above ground risks such as infrastructure gaps, policy shifts, and contractual terms
Sanctions outcomes matter, since a move from opaque trading to open markets could add some barrels and push prices lower, without reshaping the global balance
China could lose access to discounted Venezuelan barrels, but lower global prices from higher supply would still benefit the world’s largest crude importer
Oil prices have stayed broadly stable because supply and demand have not shifted yet, while the bigger change is a higher political risk premium tied to escalation
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