{"id":504264,"date":"2026-01-09T17:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T17:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/504264\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T17:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T17:58:12","slug":"increasing-venezuela-oil-which-requires-more-energy-to-process-could-harm-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/504264\/","title":{"rendered":"Increasing Venezuela oil, which requires more energy to process, could harm the environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) \u2014 Environmental experts are warning that the U.S. push to revamp and boost Venezuela\u2019s vast oil reserves<\/a> could worsen decades of ecological damage and increase planet-warming pollution in a country already struggling with the legacy of a long-declining petroleum industry.<\/p>\n

The warnings come as Washington has intensified pressure on Venezuela following the capture of former President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> last weekend. Since then, the United States has moved to assert control over Venezuelan oil exports, the country\u2019s main source of revenue, seizing tankers it says were transporting crude<\/a> in violation of U.S. sanctions and signaling plans to redirect Venezuelan oil to global markets under U.S. oversight.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has said it plans to sell between 30 million and 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude worldwide, though it has not specified a time frame. Proceeds would be held in U.S.-controlled accounts, which the administration says would benefit both Venezuelans and Americans. <\/p>\n

Industry analysts caution that significantly expanding Venezuelan oil production would require years of investment and tens of billions of dollars to repair decaying infrastructure, raising questions about how quickly \u2014 or whether \u2014 Trump\u2019s plans could realistically be carried out.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got storage facilities literally sinking into the ground, broken wellheads and degraded infrastructure across the board,\u201d said Paasha Mahdavi, an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who studies energy governance and political economy.<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s oil reserves are thought to be the largest in the world at an estimated 300 billion barrels. The country, which stretches from the Caribbean coast into the northern Andes, is already highly exposed to oil pollution and ranks among tropical countries with the fastest deforestation rates, according to Global Forest Watch, an online monitoring platform hosted by the World Resources Institute. It produces heavy crude that emits significantly more pollution than most other forms of oil. That\u2019s because it takes more energy to extract and refine, which often involves burning natural gas, mostly methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that heats the planet.<\/p>\n

Reviving Venezuela\u2019s oil industry would deepen environmental damage in a country already plagued by spills, gas leaks and dilapidated infrastructure, with higher output expected to boost climate emissions and increase spill risks in fragile ecosystems, several experts warned. <\/p>\n

The Venezuelan Political Ecology Observatory, an environmental watchdog, documented nearly 200 oil spills from 2016 to 2021 that were largely unreported by authorities. Satellite data from Global Forest Watch, an online forest monitoring platform hosted by the World Resources Institute, show Venezuela has lost roughly 2.6 million hectares of tree cover \u2014 about the size of the U.S. state of Vermont \u2014 over the past two decades, largely driven by agriculture, mining and fires, though oil activity has contributed to forest loss in some producing regions.<\/p>\n

According to a 2025 report by the International Energy Agency<\/a>, the methane emissions intensity, or ratio of methane released to natural gas produced, was far above the norm in Venezuela\u2019s oil and gas operations, with estimates showing upstream methane emissions roughly six times the world average. Flaring intensity, or volume of natural gas burned to oil produced, was about 10 times higher than typical global levels. <\/p>\n

The White House referred questions by The Associated Press to the Department of Energy, which in a statement said U.S. oil and gas companies that would revamp Venezuela\u2019s oil industry had \u201cthe highest environmental standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs American investment in Venezuela increases, you can expect environmental conditions to improve,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The El Palito oil refinery operates in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix, File)<\/p>\n

The El Palito oil refinery operates in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix, File)<\/p>\n

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New oil infrastructure needed<\/p>\n

The dense and sticky Venezuelan crude is high in sulfur, making it harder to extract and refine than other oil, such as the lighter oil produced from U.S. shale fields, said Diego Rivera Rivota, a senior research associate at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very dense, very sloppy, very hard. And it\u2019s also very sour,\u201d Rivota said. \u201cWhat that means in practical terms is that it requires, versus other types of oil resources, higher infrastructure, higher use of energy – it\u2019s much more energy intensive – and hence much more carbon intensive as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, many U.S. refineries were designed decades ago to process that type of oil, making Venezuelan crude a good fit despite its higher processing demands.<\/p>\n

Even a modest increase in Venezuelan oil production could carry climate consequences on the scale of entire countries, said Mahdavi, of the University of California, Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n

Mahdavi said raising output by about 1 million barrels a day \u2014 a level often cited as a near-term goal \u2014 would add roughly 360 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year from production. Pushing production further, to around 1.5 million barrels a day, could drive annual emissions to about 550 million tons, he said \u2014 comparable to the emissions from roughly half of all gasoline-powered vehicles in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just the production side,\u201d Mahdavi told AP, noting that far larger emissions are generated when the oil is eventually burned by consumers.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Evana,<\/p>\n

Evana, an oil tanker, is docked at El Palito Port in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix, File)<\/p>\n

Evana, an oil tanker, is docked at El Palito Port in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix, File)<\/p>\n

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Patrick Galey of nonprofit Global Witness said Venezuela\u2019s oil system is among the most poorly maintained in the world after years of underinvestment, with aging pipelines, storage facilities and widespread gas flaring that heighten the risk of spills and methane leaks. He said any rapid push to expand production is likely to prioritize output over pollution controls, worsening climate and environmental damage.<\/p>\n

Kevin Book, director of research at ClearView Energy Partners, said there could be efforts to make Venezuelan oil production more efficient, both economically and environmentally, with a significant amount of investment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe new investment will bring the latest technologies in methane capture and emissions management to bear, not just because of environmental goals, but because there\u2019s a valuable resource to be captured and sold,\u201d Book said. \u201cAnd so for that reason, there\u2019s actually some potential relative environmental upside compared to status quo, if you take the assumption that oil demand was going to grow anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent public remarks, U.S. officials have focused on control of oil sales, revenues and infrastructure repairs, without mentioning environmental safeguards or climate impacts. President Trump, both in his first and now second term, has repeatedly dismissed the scientific consensus on climate change and rolled back environmental and clean-energy policies.<\/p>\n

Impacts on already fragile environment <\/p>\n

In Caracas, Antonio de Lisio, an environmental professor and researcher at the Central University of Venezuela, said oil exploitation in the country has long gone hand in hand with environmental damage, leaving decades-old pollution that has never been fully addressed.<\/p>\n

He said Venezuela\u2019s heavy oil reserves lie in fragile plains crisscrossed by slow-moving rivers, a geography that can magnify the effects of spills.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny oil spill has the potential to worsen because these are not fast-moving rivers, they are slow-moving waters,\u201d de Lisio said, referring to morichales \u2014 palm-swamp wetlands common in eastern Venezuela, where contamination can persist for long periods.<\/p>\n

He said that energy-intensive processing plants that use heat, chemicals and large volumes of water to make heavy crude exportable pose added environmental risks, especially in fragile river systems. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A local walks past a mural featuring oil pumps and wells in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix, File)<\/p>\n

A local walks past a mural featuring oil pumps and wells in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix, File)<\/p>\n

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Environmental damage has persisted even as oil production has declined, he said, pointing to Lake Maracaibo \u2014 a shallow lake in western Venezuela drilled for oil for more than a century \u2014 as one of the most heavily oil-polluted ecosystems in the world. He said spills and contamination have also affected other regions, including areas near the Paraguana refining complex and protected coastal parks such as Morrocoy, where pollution has devastated marine life and coral reefs.<\/p>\n

The true environmental and social costs of Venezuela\u2019s oil have never been fully calculated, de Lisio said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf those costs were fully accounted for, we would see that continuing to produce oil is not the best business for Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Alexa St. John contributed from Detroit. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) \u2014 Environmental experts are warning that the U.S. push to revamp and boost Venezuela\u2019s vast…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":504265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,1613,10106,128075,69,10102,8309,746,57,226017,1612,92550,226018,80,2128,159,4217,67,370,132,68,32322,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-504264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-central-america","10":"tag-climate-and-environment","11":"tag-diego-rivera","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-energy-industry","14":"tag-energy-markets","15":"tag-environment","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-kevin-book","18":"tag-latin-america","19":"tag-nicolas-maduro","20":"tag-patrick-galey","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-pollution","23":"tag-science","24":"tag-south-america","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-government","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-us","29":"tag-venezuela","30":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115866442405117659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}