Mike Sommers, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, discusses the US oil industry’s view of possible re-involvement in Venezuela on ‘Kudlow.’
Last week’s capture of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, opened the whole world to see the chaos that the country with the largest proven oil in the world is still starving and torturing its people. But there is more than the charges against the former leader.
Notably, one of Venezuela’s closest allies in the past few years has been the Islamic Republic of Iran. Simply put, that regime is a staunch enemy of the West, and in particular, it hates the US and the freedom it stands for.
“Even though it is a country with very large reserves, Venezuela’s oil industry can no longer refine its fuel to meet its needs,” Emanuele Ottolenghi, senior researcher at the Center for Research of Terror Financing, told FOX Business.
AFTER MADURO, VENEZUELA IS FACED WITH DIFFICULT DECISIONS TO REBUILD ITS CRASHED ECONOMY.
Iranian revolutionary guards guard the area during the opening ceremony of the integrated petrochemical plant in Asaluyeh industrial area on the Gulf coast, 02 July 2007. Then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart Hu. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
But that’s where Iran stepped in to ‘help.’ In 2022, the Iranian regime entered into a 20-year agreement to aid Venezuela. Notably, that involved Iran’s restructuring of Venezuela’s oil industry. “Iran brought oil drilling technology, technology, and refined petroleum to help the country,” Ottolenghi said.
This makes a lot of sense for both parties because oil production in Venezuela has dropped from 2.6 million barrels per day in January 2016 to 669,000 barrels per day in December 2022. Production has increased to 1.14 million barrels recently, according to Trading Economics. That increase in production seems impressive given that the US has increased sanctions on Venezuela from 2023 to 2025. At least some of the profits went directly to Iran, which had access to refineries in Venezuela, Ellis said.
There is also a military component to Iran’s presence in the South American country, Evan Ellis, a Latin American Research Professor with the US Army War College, told FOX Business. “When we were in Venezuela, Iranian workers were involved in assembling military drones,” he said. “Furthermore, Venezuela has acquired Iranian-made fast attack boats armed with missiles that will terrorize the people along the coast.”
Some Venezuelan special forces are being sent to Iran for underwater training, Ellis said. He thinks that such training could be used to attach bombs to the side of oil rigs.
‘BUILD VENEZUELA’S OIL INDUSTRY:’ TRUMP VOWES US TO BRING BACK POWER AFTER MADURO’S DEPLOYMENT.
A person walks past a gas station of the state oil company PDVSA, in Caracas, Venezuela on March 16, 2022. (Gaby Oraa/Reuters/Reuters Images)
“Venezuela has once again been used as a base for propaganda throughout the region, including by TV channels,” Ottolenghi said. “Iran has a university in Caracas, and they use it to spread their philosophy.
Iran’s close relationship with the Venezuelan regime has allowed access to Venezuelan passports to allow Iranians to travel freely in the region as those with Iranian passports cannot. “I would argue that Venezuela has been one of Iran’s gateways to the region,” Ellis said.
The question now for those watching the situation is, what’s next? Ottolenghi says, we have to wait and see what actually happens. “Will the local people defy and resist the changes the US is asking for?”
Young women wave the national flags of Venezuela and Iran during the arrival of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, June 12, 2023. (Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Ellis also sees other groups aligning with the new regime. “The Chavistas who took over the property were not good people, but to me, in order to work well with President Trump, they might be happy to work together,” Ellis said. The Chavistas are Venezuela’s historic socialists that emerged under President Hugo Chavez and continued under Maduro. In the same way, the oil and mining industry wants to get out of the US sanctions, so they are likely to comply, he said.
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That means there will be some changes when it comes to Iran’s presence. “We will see some Iranian activities reduced,” “I see a negative influence on the Iranian presence in Venezuela.”
