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acquisition of Venezuelan oil By Truman Dickerson You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe
via the link in your email. and Huileng Tan You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via
the link in your email. Analysts are doubtful that Trump's acquisition of Venezuelan oil shares will help Americans
at the pump. Jose Bula Urrutia/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images 2026-08-31T05:01:47.861Z Read in app Copy link
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Link Save Saved This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading
now. Have an account? Log in. Analysts aren't buying the notion that Trump's recent acquisition of millions of barrels
of Venezuelan oil will reduce gas prices for American consumers.In a post on Truth Social on Friday, President Donald
Trump said the US has secured majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil. He said it would
"substantially" lower gas prices."This Historic Transaction MORE THAN DOUBLES American Oil Reserves, greatly increases
our Oil Supply, and will substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans, long into the future," Trump wrote. In a post
on Sunday, Trump said that some of that oil will be used to "fill up the strategic national reserves," which have
dwindled during the ongoing US war on Iran to a 40-year low.Analysts, however, say the deal is unlikely to meaningfully
lower gas prices anytime soon, citing underdeveloped oil infrastructure in Venezuela. The United States captured
Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a surprise overnight raid in January. After the raid, Trump said a change in
leadership was necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. Trump accused Maduro of using Venezuela's oil
industry — which the Trump administration said the US built and intended to take back — to fund narco-terrorism and
other criminal activities.Here's what smart people are saying about the US acquisition of Venezuelan oil. Patrick De
Haan, petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst and head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, was similarly
skeptical that Trump's deal would provide Americans with much relief at the pump in the near future.While Venezuela may
have tens of billions of barrels of oil underground, actually getting that crude to market would require billions of
dollars of investment and years of work, De Haan said."Drilling and pumping that oil will take a very long time," De
Haan said on X. "Changes to fuel prices won't happen overnight or even in months." Rory Johnston, oil market researcher
Rory Johnston, an oil market researcher and founder of Commodity Context, said Trump's announcement conflates the amount
of oil sitting underground with the amount of oil that can actually reach the market.Johnston, speaking on the Canadian
network CBC on Sunday, said Venezuela's vast reserves don't translate into an immediate increase in global oil supply.
Extracting significantly more crude from the country would require substantial investment and could take years, he
said.That means the 65 billion barrels touted by Trump aren't about to flood the market and push down prices at the
pump."The 65 billion barrel number is a red herring and will have little relevance to any actual deals," Johnston
separately wrote on X, adding that most of the details that would determine the deal's actual impact remain unknown.
Tracy Shuchart Tracy Shuchart, a senior economist at NinjaTrader Live, pushed back on the idea that Venezuela's massive
reserves will quickly translate into cheaper gas."Everyone cheering the Venezuela deal that thinks a flood of cheap oil
is about to hit and pull gas prices down. It isn't," Shuchart wrote in a post on X on Sunday.Venezuela is producing
about 1.2 million barrels of oil a day, she added, with much of the recent increase coming from Chevron ramping up
existing wells rather than new drilling."The easy barrels are already back," Shuchart wrote.Shuchart said the country's
oil reserves are a stock that will take decades to turn into actual production."The barrels that could actually move a
US pump price are 5 to 15 years out," she wrote. Amena Bakr Amena Bakr, head of Middle East and OPEC+ research at
commodities intelligence firm Kpler, also pointed to the scale of investment required to increase Venezuela's oil output
significantly."Years of consistent major investments are needed to build new oil infrastructure for oil production to
cross the 1.5 million bpd mark in Venezuela," Bakr wrote in a post on X on Saturday.Venezuela's interim President Delcy
Rodríguez said on state television Saturday that the new US-Venezuela energy agreement calls for the development of 17
oilfields with a production target of more than 1.5 million barrels per day. Recommended video Trending conversations
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want to know Truman Dickerson You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your
email. Follow Truman Dickerson is the Weekend News Fellow at Business Insider, based in New York City. He covers
trending tech and business news. He previously reported for The Boston Globe's Express Desk. He graduated from Boston
University, where he served as editor in chief of The Daily Free Press, BU's student-run newspaper.Contact him at
Tdickerson@insider.com Huileng Tan You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in
your email. Follow Huileng Tan is a senior reporter based in Singapore, covering markets, the global economy,
commodities, and investing. Her reporting focuses on how shifts in money, demographics, technology, and policy are
reshaping businesses, wealth, and everyday life around the world.Since joining Business Insider in 2021, she has covered
everything from commodity booms and investor trends to China's economy, the AI trade, and the forces driving global
markets.Before joining Business Insider, she reported for CNBC, Dow Jones, ICIS, and The Wall Street Journal.In 2018 and
2019, she won the Singapore Exchange Orb Awards for Story of the Year – Derivatives for her reporting on the global
commodities and derivatives markets.Reach her at htan@businessinsider.com. Oil Donald Trump Smart People Say More HOME
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