President Donald Trump’s unusual Venezuela oil deal is coming into fuller view, but his plan to use the proceeds to replenish America’s diminished emergency energy supplies remains a head-scratcher.
Trump over the past few days said America’s new majority ownership stake in 17 Venezuelan oil fields gives the United States access to 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves – more than double America’s own reserves. Among the initiative’s objectives is “topping out” the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is at its lowest level since November 1982, when Ronald Reagan was president.
The Venezuelan oil that the new public-private joint venture produces will be used to fill up the SPR, Trump claimed, after the United States released 130 million of the 172 million authorized barrels to shore up supply during the Iran war.
The plan faces several problems:
Heavy, sludgy Venezuelan oil fails to meet the SPR’s quality standards and could damage the storage facility.
