Yeah, but very hard to extract, much like Canadian natural gas/oil or Polish coal. Makes great propaganda claim for politicians, but economically unfeasable.

Did you know that countries self report their "proven reserves" and this influence the quota they could produce with the OPEC ?

The reality is that it's difficult to extract and not terribly cost effective. There's actually a surprisingly good dive into the whole thing from CNN of all places https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/03/business/venezuela-oil-russia-india-trump-tariffs

Not all oil is created equal. While all oil is useful, our current oil dependent economy is highly dependent on easily (cheaply) refined and pumped oil.

Though the guardian claims that Venzuela oil is "ideal" for America's gulf-coast refineries. I don't really know one way or another the efficacy of that claim. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/05/venezuelan-crude-oil-appeals-to-us-refineries

Funny how the US just happens to be targeting most of the biggest chunks. Venezuela, Canada, Iran,...

But it's bad no good oil, which is why the US isn't at all interested in it and has done no actions to obtain it in the last 50 years.

"We got the largest vein of gold in the world! It's 10 karats in purity and only a mile underground."

The oil there is thick nasty sludge that nobody wants to take the time to refine. It's not the good oil we get from the middle east.

Hmm. I'm sure that illegal invasion was completely unrelated...