What people forget, if they are not familiar with oil industry, is that the heavy crude from Orinoco basin i.e. Venezuela, is not as attractive as lighter oil elsewhere (Saudi Arabia, Iran etc.). Why?
It requires heavy investment by companies like Exxon Mobil and Chevron (caveat: Chevron is already in Venezuela extracting .. and has been doing this throughout the Chavez/Maduro governance). I can only assume that Chevron must be relying on USA processing refineries that were specifically designed for Venezuelan crude.
If the orange twat is trying to bring the oil price down, the profits by investors (there are only 2 majors that may be interested i.e. Exxon and Chevron) and I doubt that the other 2 (BP and Shell) are in that game, but, in essence, same applies. In other words, there is very little upside for Chevron and Exxon to invest in this madcap scheme that will require many, many years to have profits.
The funny thing is that the US is still buying small quantities of similar crude oil from Russia since they are obviously somewhat short (it's used for diesel).
So, what Jon Stewart says in his monologue may be true ... broadly. Unfortunately he is missing this very important point.
on January 5, 2026, 7:58 pm