Welcome to the award-winning FCPA Compliance Report, the longest running podcast in compliance. In this episode, Tom welcomes back former Houston Chronicle business columnist Loren Steffy to discuss the business aspects of returning to Venezuela.
Loren Steffy has spent much of his career analyzing the energy industry and the challenges of oil and gas development. On Venezuela, he argues that Trump administration moves are unlikely to produce meaningful gains in oil output and are more likely to deepen market uncertainty, especially in West Texas. Steffy says Venezuela’s oil sector is effectively too risky and too unstable for major foreign investment because its infrastructure has deteriorated, its legal and political environment remains unclear, and rebuilding production would require major capital, advanced technology, and years of work. Even if some companies were willing to take a chance, he believes the combination of insecurity, weak rules, and Trump-era policy uncertainty makes a broad investment revival in Venezuela highly unlikely.
Resources
Loren Steffy on LinkedIn
Tom Fox
The FCPA Compliance Report was recently named the world’s Best Business Ethics Podcast by FeedSpot.