The U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife over the weekend roiled both energy and geopolitical waters worldwide. U.S. President Donald Trump is promising to use the capture as leverage to help U.S. oil companies recover assets lost in Venezuela’s 2007 nationalization of its oil industry–and to “run the county” if necessary to accomplish that.
Many questions arise from these declarations. Are any oil companies willing to risk an investment that might never pay out? How will resulting changes affect oil markets, including trading partners like China?
