The US Is Eyeing Venezuela’s Massive Oil Reserves But an Environmental Catastrophe Is Looming in the Amazon Forest | The plan to rebuild Venezuela’s economy could trigger a surge in illegal mining and human rights violations.
The US Is Eyeing Venezuela’s Massive Oil Reserves But an Environmental Catastrophe Is Looming in the Amazon Forest | The plan to rebuild Venezuela’s economy could trigger a surge in illegal mining and human rights violations.
>When U.S. forces entered Venezuela earlier this month and removed President Nicolás Maduro, officials framed the intervention as a strategic economic opportunity. President Donald Trump repeatedly pointed to the country’s oil reserves and rare earth minerals, saying U.S. companies stood to earn billions of dollars.
>Less attention has been paid to the environmental risks of his plan. More than half of Venezuela is covered by forest, some of it in the Amazon Basin. It also has grasslands, wetlands and thousands of kilometers of Caribbean coastline. These ecosystems were already under strain under the Maduro government, but critics warn that foreign intervention could intensify the damage.
>“If environmental risks aren’t taken into account in this process, we’re probably facing a potential environmental catastrophe of a very large magnitude,” Eduardo Klein, a marine ecology professor at Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, told Mongabay.
>Venezuela has an estimated 300 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, the largest in the world. Yet it produces slightly less than a million barrels a day, far below many other oil-producing countries with smaller reserves. By international standards, Venezuela’s oil is heavier than in other parts of the world, making it more costly and requiring special processing equipment.
>The government has also allowed pipelines and refineries to fall into disrepair over the last 20 years, the result of financial mismanagement, corruption, an untrained workforce and sanctions. In 2024, there were at least 65 oil spills across eight states, according to the Venezuelan Observatory for Political Ecology. It also recorded eight major fires at facilities run by PDVSA, the state-owned oil company. In Lake Maracaibo, a large brackish estuary in Zulia state, spills have become so frequent that one activist told Mongabay it’s no longer a natural body of water, but “just an oil pit.”
>President Trump has signaled that he wants oil companies to begin producing in Venezuela as soon as possible. He proposed sending technical teams into the country to evaluate the industry, but the response from U.S. executives has been more cautious. In a meeting with President Trump this month, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods went so far as to call Venezuela “uninvestable,” citing weak regulations and security.
1 Comment
>When U.S. forces entered Venezuela earlier this month and removed President Nicolás Maduro, officials framed the intervention as a strategic economic opportunity. President Donald Trump repeatedly pointed to the country’s oil reserves and rare earth minerals, saying U.S. companies stood to earn billions of dollars.
>Less attention has been paid to the environmental risks of his plan. More than half of Venezuela is covered by forest, some of it in the Amazon Basin. It also has grasslands, wetlands and thousands of kilometers of Caribbean coastline. These ecosystems were already under strain under the Maduro government, but critics warn that foreign intervention could intensify the damage.
>“If environmental risks aren’t taken into account in this process, we’re probably facing a potential environmental catastrophe of a very large magnitude,” Eduardo Klein, a marine ecology professor at Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, told Mongabay.
>Venezuela has an estimated 300 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, the largest in the world. Yet it produces slightly less than a million barrels a day, far below many other oil-producing countries with smaller reserves. By international standards, Venezuela’s oil is heavier than in other parts of the world, making it more costly and requiring special processing equipment.
>The government has also allowed pipelines and refineries to fall into disrepair over the last 20 years, the result of financial mismanagement, corruption, an untrained workforce and sanctions. In 2024, there were at least 65 oil spills across eight states, according to the Venezuelan Observatory for Political Ecology. It also recorded eight major fires at facilities run by PDVSA, the state-owned oil company. In Lake Maracaibo, a large brackish estuary in Zulia state, spills have become so frequent that one activist told Mongabay it’s no longer a natural body of water, but “just an oil pit.”
>President Trump has signaled that he wants oil companies to begin producing in Venezuela as soon as possible. He proposed sending technical teams into the country to evaluate the industry, but the response from U.S. executives has been more cautious. In a meeting with President Trump this month, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods went so far as to call Venezuela “uninvestable,” citing weak regulations and security.