Venezuela’s Oil Industry Is Not Hopeless Trump’s plan to resurrect the Venezuelan oil industry remains vague and audacious, but not impossible. (Jesus Vargas/picture alliance via Getty Images) If U.S. oil companies come around, the oil fields are ready for a revival. A few years ago, touring Venezuela’s oil belt, I saw ruins. Outside El Tigre, once Venezuela’s booming oil center, a group of storage tanks stood in a sea of crude because no one had bothered to stop up the leaks.