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PaperclipPerfector
3mo ago
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Transnational Thursday for December 18, 2025
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And you expect them to do what, exactly? The issue here isn't access; the Venezuelans are perfectly willing to sell their oil to the US at favorable prices. Yet Trump made it so Citgo couldn't do what limited business they were doing down there at the time. We're already at an advantage on that front to begin with since US companies are among the few that can actually refine the toothpaste sludge that they call oil down there. And even if the Bolivaran regime absolutely refused to sell us oil or grant US companies concessions, it wouldn't matter that much, since it's a global market. If there is some future where Venezuelan oil is the only game in town, Chevron isn't going to sell it at a favorable price to the American consumer, I can tell you that right now. Whatever impediments there are to our "having" that oil are entirely political.
But even if we assume that the Venezuela won't sell us oil under the current government and won't grant US companies concessions and the only way to get access is to regime change their asses, it still doesn't make sense unless you're hopelessly naive about the way oil concessions actually work. A freindly, Democratic Venezuelan government is not going to grant some magic lease that lets US companies sit on their asses for fifty years. Any oil deal, whether you're talking about a private lease in the US or an international concession, is going to require a certain amount of activity in order to retain the rights. For instance, here if you sign a lease with a company to drill on your farm and it will call for something like a 5 year primary term with a $3,000/acre bonus payment and a 15% royalty. What this means is that the comp[any has to pay you $300,000 up front for the right to drill a well within the next 5 years. If they drill a well and start paying royalties then the lease holds until the well stops producing. If the term expires and they haven't done anything then they're out the $300,000 and you're free to lease it to someone else.
International concessions are a lot more complicated, but the same principles apply. The biggest difference is that up-front bonus payments don't normally apply, but there's usually a commitment to start development within the first year, and the company is contractually obligated to spend millions of dollars on development. Whether you're a private landowner or a sovereign government, there's an expectation that if you give away something of value you expect something of value in return. Governments don't grant concessions so they'll eventually get paid when the grantee feels like doing something; if you're not going to act now they'll grant a concession to someone who will.
Was that before or after Venezuela took six Citgo executives hostage in 2017?
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