(WXYZ) — President Donald Trump is saying that the U.S. will take control of Venezuela, including the country's oil reserve. The country is sitting on a massive 303 billion barrels of oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
That is about a fifth of the world's global reserve.
However, experts say don’t get too excited just yet.
Watch the interview with Gas Buddy's Patrick De Haan
It would take a lot of time and work to fix Venezuela’s infrastructure — including broken pipelines and drilling wells that have fallen into disrepair.
“It is going to take a long time for Venezuela's oil output to increase, and to have any real relevance to the global price of oil. To put it into comparison, Venezuela’s current oil production is 0.4 percent of global supply. That is not something that is going to move the needle anytime soon. In a few years, if things go really well in Venezuela, then it may have maybe pennies or maybe nickels of impact on gas prices," said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for Gas Buddy.
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De Haan goes on to say U.S. oil companies are not likely to want to jump into the country right away, stating companies don’t want to get burned again by the country seizing their assets.
