Donny is all giddy about the new deal that he made with Venezuela… a deal worth millions….and as usual the claim is that this deal will lower gas prices….you know the usual bullshit.
President Trump and Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez have announced that Washington and Caracas have reached a major oil deal, which comes nearly nine months after the US attack on Venezuela to abduct President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump first announced the new oil deal, writing on Truth Social on Friday that the US, through a private business, has “secured majority US control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela.”
The president claimed that the deal “greatly increases our Oil Supply, and will substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans, long into the future,” though any substantial increase in Venezuelan oil production will require billions of dollars in investment and years of work. Trump claimed the project will not come “at no cost to the American Taxpayer,” but it’s unclear where the funds for the necessary investments would come from.
In her announcement, Rodriguez claimed the deal involves “the development of 17 strategic fields, with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels of oil, an investment of more than $100 billion, and more than $209 billion in taxes for the State.”
A US State Department official speaking to TIME Magazine described the “private company” that has been granted access to the oil fields as a “joint project of the US government and an experienced private operator in Venezuela” and said that the company has the rights for 100 years, though in other comments Rodriguez said it was a 25-year deal.
Trump suggested on Sunday that he could fill the US strategic oil reserve with Venezuelan oil under the deal, though Venezuela’s current production levels are nowhere close to the US’s. Venezuela currently produces about 1.25 million barrels per day, and more than half already goes to the US, while the US produces 13.6 million barrels of crude oil per day.
“One of the things I am going to do with the Venezuelan Oil is fill up the Strategic National Reserves, which, because of Sleepy Joe Biden, has been virtually emptied. The ‘topping out’ process will begin very shortly, and is a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States,” Trump said.
Since the January 3 attack on Venezuela, the US has tightly controlled Venezuela’s oil trade, holding its revenue and cutting off oil shipments to Cuba, where the ramped-up US oil embargo has caused a devastating humanitarian crisis.
(antiwar.com)
The overall goal for the US, a fact sheet from the White House explained, is to ensure “a stable supply of low-cost oil that can facilitate refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve” at “no cost to the American taxpayer.”
I do not buy the con that is will cost the taxpayer nothing.
While refilling the US energy backstop won’t be quite that simple, the Trump administration has expressed confidence in Betancourt’s ability to deliver, calling him “a proven operator” and noting that NABEP already sits as the second-largest private oil producer in the country and aims to surpass Chevron (CVX), the leader.
The deal has also moved ahead rapidly, even as questions have emerged about Betancourt’s past. He rose to prominence in Venezuela as an ally of Hugo Chavez before a falling out with the regime. More recently, he faced criminal investigations around allegations of money laundering in Spain and Switzerland.
Just as figured…..yet another criminal….
Is this deal all it is cracked up to be?
I thinking it is not….how about you?
But that aside it looks like Donny has picked his next war….
Since regaining power last year, Donald Trump has been clear on his intent to establish military dominance in the Western Hemisphere. That has ranged from demanding favorable trade arrangements from regional partners to expressing the desire to either control or annex territories and whole nations. Along the way, he has revealed a steady fixation with combating drug traffickers, and has unleashed the full weight of U.S. military power to pursue those ends. But it’s only in recent days that this has turned into a clear policy framework. These actions in Ecuador are a preview of a wider campaign that looks poised to quickly grow in the coming weeks.
It wasn’t until late August that the full extent of military involvement in the region started coming into view. Juan Jaramillo, the governor of Ecuador’s Esmeraldas province, located near the Colombian border, revealed that Green Berets from the 7th Special Forces Group were conducting joint operations against cartels with Ecuadorian troops. Soon after, two ships—an American destroyer and an amphibious transport dock carrying Marines sent to the region explicitly to fight drug traffickers—arrived in Ecuador’s waters. These maneuvers coincided with fresh sanctions against various individuals alleged to be involved in drug trafficking.
https://newrepublic.com/article/214958/trump-new-war-latin-america
Looks like Donny has found his excuse for more direct US involvement….it is as tired as the Israeli bullshit about nukes in Iran.
Thoughts?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”