It’s Complicated: The U.S., China, and Venezuela’s Oil Relationship

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In The Media

Carnegie China

It’s Complicated: The U.S., China, and Venezuela’s Oil Relationship

The United States and China can work together to help Venezuela navigate the challenges facing its crude oil exports sector.

By Matt Ferchen

Published on May 18, 2015

Source: Platts

Venezuela was once the largest source of U.S. oil imports, but when that relationship soured, the Latin American powerhouse turned to a new relationship with China. But as Platts senior editors Brian Scheid and Herman Wang explain, that partnership is not quite what was expected.

Matt Ferchen, resident scholar at the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, joined to lay out the state of affairs between the three countries and the relationships which hinge on crude trade.

Could the United States and China work together to help Venezuela develop its struggling resource base? Is Venezuela looking to reunite with the United States to bolster its struggling crude export sector? And how has crude oil been used as a political tool in this situation?

This interview was originally broadcasted by Platts.

About the Author

Matt Ferchen

Former Nonresident Scholar, Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy

Ferchen specializes in China’s political-economic relations with emerging economies. At the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, he ran a program on China’s economic and political relations with the developing world, including Latin America.

Recent Work

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Why Unsustainable Chinese Infrastructure Deals Are a Two-Way Street
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Carnegie India does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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