Although the country accounts for a very small percentage of the crude oil on the global market, Venezuela boasts the world’s largest reserves.
How much crude oil does Venezuela have in its reserves?
The South American nation, whose leader Nicolás Maduro has been captured in a U.S. strike on Caracas, has proven reserves of just over 303 billion barrels, per the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Venezuela’s oil reserves represented around 17% of global reserves as of 2023.
However, with international sanctions and aging pipelines hurting the Venezuelan oil industry, the nation produced just 0.8% of total global crude oil in 2023, the EIA adds.
Per the OPEC, the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of crude oil, at just over 13 million barrels per day.
Countries with the biggest crude oil reserves (in barrels):1. Venezuela: 303.2 billion2. Saudi Arabia: 267.2 billion3. Iran: 208.6 billion4. Iraq: 145 billion5. UAE: 113 billion6. Kuwait: 101.5 billion7. Russia: 80 billion8. Libya: 48.4 billion9. United States: 45 billion10. Nigeria: 37.3 billion
Source: OPEC 2025 ranking. Data doesn’t include oil sands.
U.S. to fix “badly broken” Venezuela oil business, Trump claims
Speaking after the U.S. strike on Venezuela, American president Donald Trump declared that the States “are going to run” Venezuela until a “safe, proper and judicious transition” can be guaranteed in the country. Trump also asserted that the U.S. would be at the heart of an overhaul of Venezuela’s oil industry.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies – the biggest anywhere in the world – go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure,” Trump claimed.
He added that Venezuela’s oil business has been “a total bust for a long period of time”.
Where is Nicolás Maduro now?
Maduro, who had come to power in Venezuela in 2013, was on Saturday transported by U.S. forces to New York, where he is now being held in a Brooklyn jail.
The 63-year-old has been indicted in the Southern District of New York on drugs and weapons charges.
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