What is President Trump's problem with Venezuela, a country with the 'largest crude oil reserves in the world'?

 What is President Trump's problem with Venezuela, a country with the 'largest crude oil reserves in the world'?

 

US Republican Senator Mike Lee has confirmed that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been arrested and that he will face criminal charges in the United States. The confirmation came after a phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Senator Lee said that Rubio believes that now that Maduro is in US custody, no further action is expected in Venezuela.

He added that the US strikes were “in defense and protection of those who were executing the warrant for his arrest.”

Earlier, US President Donald Trump claimed that the US had carried out a “massive attack” against Venezuela, during which President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were detained and transferred abroad.

According to Pakistan time, on Sunday morning, US President Donald Trump ordered an attack on Venezuela, after which explosions were heard in the capital Caracas.

Venezuela, while announcing the imposition of a national emergency in the country, said that it rejects and condemns the US's 'military aggression'.

For some time now, US President Donald Trump has been continuously increasing pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

A few days ago, US warships had reached a point near Venezuela from where they could easily attack.

How much oil is Venezuela worth?

Oil is the Maduro government's biggest source of foreign exchange, and profits from the sector account for more than half of the government's budget.

 

Venezuela currently exports about 900,000 barrels of oil per day, with China being its largest buyer.

Although Venezuela has the world's largest proven crude oil reserves, according to a US estimate, it is making relatively little use of them.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EI), Venezuela produced only 0.8% of global crude oil production in 2023, due to technical and budgetary challenges.

After announcing the seizure of the first tanker, Trump told reporters: "I think we'll keep the oil."

The US had previously rejected Venezuelan accusations that the measures against the Maduro government were aimed at gaining access to the country's untapped oil reserves.

Other accusations against the Maduro government

Trump also alleges that Venezuela's economic crisis and government atrocities have forced millions of people to flee the country, with hundreds of thousands of them reaching the US border.

He accused Maduro of emptying prisons and asylums and forcing his prisoners and asylum seekers to emigrate to the US.

It should be noted that Trump's claims are controversial and he has not provided any evidence for this.

Who is Maduro and why was he arrested?

Nicolas Maduro rose to political prominence under leftist President Hugo Chávez and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela. He succeeded Chávez as president of Venezuela in 2013.

In 2024, Maduro was declared the winner of the presidential election, but according to voting results collected by the opposition, his candidate, Edmundo González, won by a clear majority.

Maduro and Trump have been at loggerheads over the influx of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan refugees into the United States and the White House's crackdown on drug trafficking, particularly fentanyl and cocaine.

Trump has designated two Venezuelan drug cartels, the Tren de Aragua and the Cartel de Los Solís, as foreign terrorist organizations and has accused Maduro of leading the other group.

The US had also offered a $50m (£37m) reward for information leading to Maduro's capture.

In recent months, US forces have also carried out more than two dozen raids in international waters on boats they claim were being used to smuggle drugs into the US.

More than 100 people have been killed in these attacks.

Oil sales despite US sanctions

In 2019, when US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry in an attempt to increase pressure on the government of Nicolas Maduro, the country’s crude oil exports fell to about 495,000 barrels per day.

Although the sanctions remain in place six years later, Venezuela’s oil sales have increased dramatically during that period, reaching about one million barrels per day.

While this volume of oil sales is still very low for a country that used to produce about 3 million barrels per day before Hugo Chavez came to power in 1998, selling such a large amount of oil despite the sanctions shows that the US sanctions imposed over the past six years are not producing the results that were expected.

Venezuela’s Maduro government is busy trying to restore oil production and find new ways to sell crude while avoiding US sanctions. And in this context, a secret “ghost fleet” is playing a central role.

The fleet is actually a network of oil tankers that use various tactics to hide their movements and deliver oil that is subject to US sanctions.

The US government has identified or seized a number of oil tankers in recent months that were trying to smuggle Venezuelan oil.

The Venezuelan government calls this US action “open robbery and piracy.”