If U.S. Reached a Deal With Venezuela on Oil, Would It Have an Impact on Gas Prices?
If U.S. Reached a Deal With Venezuela on Oil, Would It Have an Impact on Gas Prices?
"The challenges for Venezuela to increase [oil] production are huge," said AS/COA's Guillermo Zubillaga to the Miami Herald.
The United States is exploring a deal with Venezuela for oil amid soaring energy prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But that doesn’t mean Americans will see an immediate impact on gas prices at the pump, experts say.
Even if President Joe Biden chooses to ease sanctions on its oil sector, Venezuela won’t be able to turn the spigots back on overnight.
Biden announced on Tuesday that the United States would ban the import of all Russian oil and gas over its war in Ukraine. Last year, the United States imported roughly 675,000 barrels of Russian oil a day — the equivalent of Venezuela’s entire production capacity…
Guillermo Zubillaga, head of the Venezuelan working group at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, said in an interview that it will take time to reverse a 20-year effort to dismantle Venezuela’s production capacity.
Venezuela’s oil sector is also rife with corruption, Zubillaga noted.
“The challenges for Venezuela to increase production are huge,” he said. “It is very hard to reverse that in a couple of months for people to be able to see an impact at the gas pump.”…
