Cannon: Convincing U.S. Oil Companies To Invest in Venezuela Will Be a “Hard Sell”
RCP Washington editor Carl Cannon explained why American energy companies might be skeptical to invest in Venezuela when the Trump administration asks them to Wednesday on the RealClearPolitics podcast:
CARL CANNON: Do you realize what a hard sell this is? The president had these oil executives at the White House, and one of them said flatly to his face-I think it was Exxon-Twice in our company’s history, we’ve had all our equipment, our wells, our leases nationalized by that government. So Marco Rubio is sort of playing salesman on the Hill again today. They’re having trouble convincing the private sector that this investment makes sense for them. Venezuela’s oil is very heavy crude. It needs a lot of processing. You have Chavez and Maduro between them-what, 25 years? You have a whole generation of people who don’t know how private enterprise is supposed to work. It’s a hard sell. And Reuters also had a report saying they’re not sure Trump’s handpicked interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez-who’s a Chavista herself and was close to Maduro-is actually willing to, or even has the power to do what the United States is demanding, which is sever ties with countries like Iran and Cuba. So to me, it looks like it’s slow going. The Venezuelan people still seem happy they got rid of this dictator, but in terms of the U.S. affecting the policy it wants, I think it’s going to be a laborious process.
