Chevron, Venezuela and the Paradox of Plenty
Planet Money
NPR
4.6 • 30.5K Ratings
🗓️ 17 January 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today on the show, the story of their intertwined histories. Before Saudi Arabia, before Iran… there was Venezuela, the first petrostate. The first country whose entire economy became dependent on oil. With the blessing of oil, an entire economic textbook of complications opened up: from the Dutch Disease, to the resource curse, to mono-economic vulnerability.
And, oddly, along for that ride…Chevron.
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This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Erika Beras and Kenny Malone. It was produced by Luis Gallo with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Planet Money from NPR. |
| 0:05.5 | In the wake of news that the United States had captured and arrested the leader of Venezuela and would run the country for some amount of time, one specific American company found itself suddenly in a very strange spotlight. |
| 0:22.0 | A case in point. |
| 0:23.5 | A huge meeting last week at the White House. |
| 0:26.4 | But today I'm delighted to welcome almost two dozen of the biggest and most respected oil and gas executives in the world to the White House. |
| 0:34.8 | It's an honor to do with that. |
| 0:35.4 | President Trump assembled basically the entire American oil industry to discuss his goal |
| 0:41.4 | of turning Venezuela back into a booming petroleum exporter. |
| 0:46.0 | But Trump appeared to be looking out into the crowd for one company in particular. |
| 0:51.0 | Where's Chevron? |
| 0:52.3 | Where's Chevron? |
| 0:53.7 | He asks. Where are you? Far Where's Chevron? He asks. |
| 0:54.8 | Where are you? |
| 0:55.6 | Far right? |
| 0:56.1 | No, I thought you'd have a better location. |
| 0:58.1 | You were the only one that was there for all that. |
| 1:00.9 | Yes, Chevron was there in Venezuela from the time that oil literally rained down on the country, caused a boom, and turned Venezuela into the biggest oil exporter in the world. |
| 1:13.4 | Chevron was there when that oil money transformed Venezuela into the first petro state and transformed Caracas into a gilded global capital. |
| 1:22.2 | But most notably, Chevron kept being there when things went bad and when Venezuela took more and more of the |
| 1:29.9 | oil industry away from foreign companies. And so in that White House room full of the most |
| 1:35.1 | powerful oil executives on the planet, Trump singled out Chevron's executive. |
| 1:40.0 | I used to call you and say, what the hell is going on with Venezuela? |
... |
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