"Despite capturing Venezuela's president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Donald Trump's intervention in the nation has so far been relatively light-touch: That is to say, it hasn't racked up a huge bill. The United States doesn't have troops on the ground, isn't deploying any major resources, and has reportedly already secured a $2 billion oil deal. As such, markets have been fairly indifferent to the action, despite it raising geopolitical tensions."
"The reasoning behind the U.S.'s interest in accessing Venezuela's oil industry is clear: According to self-reported figures, the nation claims to have the largest oil reserves in the world, estimated at around 300 billion barrels. These haven't been audited, and as Apollo's Torsten Sløk wrote in a note to clients: "Venezuela's self-reported crude oil reserves tripled from around 100 billion barrels in the early 2000s to 300 billion barrels in the late 2000s due to the reclassification of Orinoco Belt heavy oil as 'proved.'""
U.S. action in Venezuela has been relatively light-touch: no troops on the ground, no major resource deployments, and an already reported $2 billion oil deal. Markets have been fairly indifferent despite raised geopolitical tensions, viewing an apparent U.S. win as broadly positive if achieved without significant conflict or cost. President Trump suggested the U.S. may reimburse the "tremendous amount of money" needed by oil companies to rebuild Venezuela's infrastructure. Venezuela self-reports roughly 300 billion barrels of oil reserves, a tripling driven by reclassification of Orinoco Belt heavy oil as 'proved', with much of the oil extra-heavy, costly and low-recovery. The move offers an opportunity to diversify supplies and reduce Chinese influence.
Read at Fortune
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