When people talk about the oil
on the TV with the talking heads and all they don't really get into what is about to happen from a money standpoint to the Venezuelan people and how it's done. Historically over in the Middle East the oil companies were cutting deals with strongmen for pennies on the dollar compared to what a true rate should have been for that countries share of the resource. Naturally the people saw little benefit.
That changed somewhat in the period after WW2 and into the '60's/'70's when leadership rose in some of those countries that could force a better deal. That's not to say the people were greatly improved it is simply to make the point that the vultures in the resource extraction business, whether it's oil or mining, follow a pattern. They've used it around the world and still today in Africa and elsewhere.
That pattern is to work in conjunction with the government of a country like the US, England, France etc. to prop up an authoritarian regime, many times a military strongman, with weapons and money and then cut a deal to pay royalties for the resources for a tiny fraction of what would be a fair amount. The strongman is always well compensated and kept supplied with weapons, money etc. and he is expected to keep control of the people. The people end up working but not really improving their lives to anywhere near what they could because the rightful share of the money from their resources is never paid and used for their betterment.
So after decades of mineral and oil extraction the people are mired pretty much at a low level. This is what was happening in Venezuela for decades prior to Hugo Chavez and his people rising to power in the early 2000's. Still an authoritarian to a degree he was more Socialist and began enacting reforms for the people and nationalized the oil fields. There was opposition to Chavez politically within Venezuela and I'm not making him out as a saint. I'm simply pointing out in general the system that was and then in the broad sense what began to change for the people. Chavez died and Maduro is the successor but he is not all that competent but he has been having to struggle with heavy US sanctions for many years and fights with the oil companies over their claims of money owed to them for what they claim Venezuela owes them.
The bottom line is the same old imperialist/colonialist pattern is being perpetrated by Crumb the 1st and the oil companies and there will not be a great financial and social benefit to the people from the extraction of their oil. Throughout Central and South America it has been and continues to be corporations and the US government identifying willing right wing strongmen and helping them into power with weapons and money with the expectations that they will "do as we want". Like in El Salvador etc. and the betterment of the people is simply not even remotely in the equation at play by the extraction companies and the US government.
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The truth of the matter is that while there is still a lot of oil in Venezuela, it isn't as accessible or cost-effective to drill for it or refine it as the big brains 
in the current mal-administration like to think. Venezuela's oil infrastructure has deteriorated for decades now and outside of fantasy circles at right-wing political institutes or the irresponsible right-wing media, I don't see that it would be that cost-effective to pump it out. It will cost big bucks (or Euros or whatever) to repair what Chavez and Maduro have allowed to deteriorate and there will need to be a lot of incentive for Big Oil or not-so-big oil field supply companies to repair decades of neglect. Moreover, investing in such repairs might cost more than oil companies are likely to get out of it, particularly with today's oil prices. It might have been if oil went for $100 a barrel back when Buckaroo Bush was in the White House, but today oil is selling for under $60 a barrel and the costs of sinking all that money into Venezuelan oil fields, pipelines, refineries and docks might not be worth it.
I was one of many democrats who thought that invading Iraq was a disaster waiting to happen and that the people who thought it up were criminal fools. I still do, but in hindsight I will give them a very little credit. A very little credit. Buckaroo Bush's posse were oilmen and at least some of them had some idea of petroleum economics. Orange Julius and his retinue, on the other hand, do not. They are not oil men, they do not seem to understand oil economics, and they launched their operation anyway. Both the people of Venezuela and the American people will be paying for this folly for decades to come.
Venezuela's recent arguments with Guyana over its recently acknowledged off shore and near shore oil fields and then their rare earth minerals everybody wants... all in tiny Guyana.
That was getting louder and now guess who wants to butt in and take over like the bully he is?
