AI Summary
5 min readIn 2019, José Ángel Pereira was president of Citgo, a U.S.-based oil company owned by Venezuela, living in Houston with a plane and a helicopter. Then he got a call from Venezuela’s petroleum minister asking him to come to Caracas for a presentation. The meeting went well, but as he tried to leave for the airport, 20 guards with skeleton masks and rifles surrounded him. “They put us handcuff and the next time I went out to see the sky was 10 months after,” he says. Pereira spent nearly five years in detention, accused of being an American spy. His story is the latest chapter in a century-long Venezuelan drama: the country can’t live with foreign oil companies, and can’t live without them.
The Can’t-Live-With-Them, Can’t-Live-Without-Them Paradox
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:22) **Trump's New Venezuela Oil Deal** - The U.S. government may buy a stake in a Venezuelan oil company, gaining exclusive rights to extract oil from 17 fields for 100 years at a cheap price.
- 2 (02:37) **Introducing José Ángel Pereira** - A third-generation Venezuelan oil man who witnessed the industry's opening and closing to foreigners over decades.
- 3 (06:51) **Snapshot One: Foreign Control** - José's grandparents met in the first era of Venezuelan oil, when foreign companies dominated and exploited the resource.
- 4 (07:52) **Snapshot Two: Training for Nationalization** - In 1967, José's family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, so his parents could train as petroleum engineers before Venezuela nationalized its oil industry.
- 5 (08:43) **Snapshot Three: The Nationalized Era** - In the late 1970s, José's parents worked for the new state-owned company, PDVSA, which owned everything.
- 6 (10:01) **The Lesson: Always Be Investing** - José learned that oil fields decline 10-11% yearly if not constantly invested in, leading to the need for the Apertura.
- 7 (11:13) **The Apertura Worked (At First)** - José worked on the first project of the Apertura in 1992, hired by a Japanese company, and saw how foreign expertise and money benefited Venezuela.
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Show Notes
The exact nature of this deal has been … obscure, to say the least. But today, we wanted to know, from someone who’s been through this before, what does this mean for Venezuela?
José Ángel Pereira Ruimwyk is both optimistic … and wary. He’s a longtime Venezuelan oil insider. When Venezuela invited in foreigners, decades ago, he was there to greet them. And when Venezuela wanted them out? Well, that’s how he ended up in a jail cell.
On today’s show, we’re going to hear from one third-generation Venezuelan oilman who has seen everything … up until this, of course.
Check out our other episodes about Venezuela:
- Chevron, Venezuela and the Paradox of Plenty
- How Venezuela imploded
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This episode was hosted by Nick Fountain and Erika Beras and produced by Emma Peaslee with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact checked by Emma Peaslee with help from Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Josephine Nyounai with help from Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.
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