Why is Venezuela ‘uninvestable’ for Big Oil?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 747 Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2026
⏱️ 20 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, U.S. President Donald Trump has made it clear deposing Nicolas Maduro is all about the oil. |
| 0:18.0 | We're taking back what was taken from us. |
| 0:21.8 | They took our oil industry. |
| 0:23.7 | We built that entire oil industry. |
| 0:25.8 | It started a long time ago, but they took it. |
| 0:29.6 | Venezuela has it. |
| 0:31.0 | The U.S. wants it. |
| 0:32.1 | But why are oil companies suddenly so skeptical? |
| 0:37.4 | I'm Kevin Horton, and this is the take. |
| 0:47.8 | Hi, before we continue with today's show, remember to leave us a comment telling us what you |
| 0:53.1 | think about this episode and what stories you want to see us do comment telling us what you think about this episode and |
| 0:54.8 | what stories you want to see us do next. Or if you're on your favorite podcast app, please |
| 0:59.5 | leave us a review. Tell us where you're listening from. And you might as well give us a five-star |
| 1:03.7 | review. It really does help the show. |
| 1:09.6 | My name is Arneke Wohl. I'm independent journalist, and I am based in Miami, Florida, but I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. |
| 1:17.6 | Great. So, Anike, what's the expression? The best laid plans, right? So Donald Trump's dream of seamlessly deploying U.S. oil companies to start hoovering up Venezuela's vast oil resources suffered a bit of a blow last Friday. I'm sure you saw this. He invited a group of oil company executives to the eastern of the White House, and he seemed somewhat surprised by the muted reaction from at least some of them. |
| 1:45.4 | Here's ExxonMobil CEO, Darren Woods. |
| 1:48.7 | If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, |
| 1:53.9 | today it's uninvestable. |
| 1:56.9 | So that's what I want to explore with you today. |
| 1:59.2 | Why Darren Woods would call Venezuela uninvestable. |
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