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The challenges of rebuilding Venezuela's oil industry and questions about who will do it

Vehicles drive past the El Palito refinery in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (Matias Delacroix/AP)
Matias Delacroix/AP
Vehicles drive past the El Palito refinery in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (Matias Delacroix/AP)

When President Trump spoke about Venezuela’s future on Saturday, after the U.S. military action and arrest of its president, Nicolás Maduro, he said that the country’s decimated oil infrastructure will be rebuilt and start making money again.

Here & Now‘s Scott Tong speaks with Francisco Monaldi, who’s a fellow in Latin American energy policy and the director of the Latin America Energy Program at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University, about the major challenges of rebuilding the Venezuelan oil industry and how it will require many years and tens of billions of dollars.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2026 WBUR

Here & Now Newsroom