Venezuela’s oil is one of the most difficult to refine in the world, thus far less desirable that almost any other source. Only a few refineries (mostly in the US) can actually handle it.
“Venezuela’s oil is one of the most difficult to refine in the world, thus far less desirable that almost any other source. Only a few refineries (mostly in the US) can actually handle it.”
True and not true. The oil from the Maracaibo Basin is good stuff. The oil from the Orinoco is a “heavy crude” and much less valuable do to refinery costs to process this heavy crude. Venezuela did build one of the most modern refinery in the world to utilize this heavy crude. This was pre Chavez. That refinery today operates at about 25% of capacity. The workers that knew how to make it work just went away. They refused to work for paltry wages.
Due to the collapse of the oil industry in Venezuela the production of both is down greatly. The reason for this is those that know how to run a drilling and production operation left Venezuela. Many of those are in Columbia, Ecuador and the USA using their skills to drill and find and produce oil.
Trump's NOT going to refine oil for Russians on the cheap... not in our USA...