US Push to Revive Venezuela’s Oil Industry Raises Environmental Concerns

Environmental experts warn that U.S. efforts to revamp Venezuela’s vast oil reserves could worsen decades of ecological damage and increase planet-warming pollution in a country already grappling with severe environmental degradation from its petroleum industry.

The warnings come as Washington has intensified pressure on Venezuela following the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro. The United States has moved to assert control over Venezuelan oil exports, seizing tankers allegedly transporting crude in violation of U.S. sanctions and signaling plans to redirect Venezuelan oil to global markets under U.S. oversight.

The Trump administration has announced plans to sell between 30 and 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude worldwide, though no specific timeframe has been provided. Proceeds would be held in U.S.-controlled accounts, which the administration claims would benefit both Venezuelans and Americans.

Industry analysts caution that significantly expanding Venezuelan oil production would require years of investment and tens of billions of dollars to repair severely deteriorated infrastructure, raising questions about the feasibility of Trump’s plans.

“You’ve got storage facilities literally sinking into the ground, broken wellheads and degraded infrastructure across the board,” said Paasha Mahdavi, an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who specializes in energy governance and political economy.

Venezuela possesses what are believed to be the world’s largest oil reserves, estimated at 300 billion barrels. The country, which extends from the Caribbean coast into the northern Andes, is already heavily affected by oil pollution and ranks among tropical countries with the fastest deforestation rates, according to Global Forest Watch.

Venezuela produces heavy crude that emits significantly more pollution than most other forms of oil due to its energy-intensive extraction and refining processes. This typically involves burning natural gas, primarily methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming.

“It’s very dense, very sloppy, very hard. And it’s also very sour,” explained Diego Rivera Rivota, a senior research associate at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “What that means in practical terms is that it requires, versus other types of oil resources, higher infrastructure, higher use of energy – it’s much more energy intensive – and hence much more carbon intensive as well.”

The Venezuelan Political Ecology Observatory documented nearly 200 oil spills from 2016 to 2021 that were largely unreported by authorities. Meanwhile, satellite data shows Venezuela has lost roughly 2.6 million hectares of tree cover—about the size of Vermont—over the past two decades, primarily due to agriculture, mining, and fires, though oil activity has contributed to forest loss in some producing regions.

According to a 2023 report by the International Energy Agency, methane emissions intensity in Venezuela’s oil and gas operations was approximately six times the world average, while flaring intensity—the volume of natural gas burned relative to oil produced—was about 10 times higher than typical global levels.

The White House referred questions to the Department of Energy, which stated that U.S. oil and gas companies that would revamp Venezuela’s oil industry had “the highest environmental standards.” “As American investment in Venezuela increases, you can expect environmental conditions to improve,” the statement said.

Even a modest increase in Venezuelan oil production could have significant climate impacts, according to Mahdavi. Raising output by about 1 million barrels per day—often cited as a near-term goal—would add roughly 360 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually from production alone. Increasing production further to around 1.5 million barrels daily could drive annual emissions to approximately 550 million tons, comparable to the emissions from about half of all gasoline-powered vehicles in the United States.

“That’s just the production side,” Mahdavi noted, adding that far larger emissions are generated when the oil is eventually consumed.

Patrick Galey of the nonprofit Global Witness said Venezuela’s oil system is among the most poorly maintained in the world after years of underinvestment. Aging pipelines, deteriorating storage facilities, and widespread gas flaring heighten the risks of spills and methane leaks. He warned that any rapid push to expand production would likely prioritize output over pollution controls.

Kevin Book, director of research at ClearView Energy Partners, suggested that new investment could potentially improve environmental performance if accompanied by modern technologies. “The new investment will bring the latest technologies in methane capture and emissions management to bear, not just because of environmental goals, but because there’s a valuable resource to be captured and sold,” Book said.

In Caracas, Antonio de Lisio, an environmental professor at the Central University of Venezuela, emphasized that oil exploitation in the country has long caused environmental damage, leaving decades-old pollution that has never been properly addressed.

Venezuela’s heavy oil reserves are located in fragile plains crossed by slow-moving rivers, a geography that can magnify the effects of spills. “Any oil spill has the potential to worsen because these are not fast-moving rivers, they are slow-moving waters,” de Lisio explained, referring to morichales—palm-swamp wetlands common in eastern Venezuela where contamination can persist for long periods.

He pointed to Lake Maracaibo—a shallow lake in western Venezuela drilled for oil for more than a century—as one of the world’s most heavily oil-polluted ecosystems. 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.

“If those costs were fully accounted for,” de Lisio concluded, “we would see that continuing to produce oil is not the best business for Venezuela.”