Third Nationalization? No, If the Citizen is the Owner
In 2025, the United States reached a new historic milestone: it produced more than 13.8 million barrels per day[1], an astonishing feat for a country that many considered finished in 2008, when its production hit a low of 5 million bpd. This impressive increase was not achieved by a giant state-owned company, but by an ecosystem of thousands of independent operators driven by an incentive that sounds like an alien concept in Venezuela: private ownership of the subsoil. Meanwhile, Venezuela has gone the opposite way: from a proud peak of 3.7 million bpd in 1970[2], it has collapsed to a stagnant production below one million barrels. In Texas, the owner of the land is the owner of the oil; in Venezuela, it is the State, which also claims to represent us all.
TL;DR
- Venezuela's oil production has collapsed from 3.7 million bpd in 1970 to under 1 million, contrasting with the US's production increase to over 13.8 million bpd, driven by private ownership.
- A proposal suggests removing the state from oil operations, making citizens 50% owners of net profit through an "Oil-to-Cash" dividend, and eliminating all taxes on oil production to lower the break-even point to $30 per barrel.
- This model aims to prevent future nationalizations by making citizens direct stakeholders in the oil industry's profitability, turning them into 'defenders' of private capital against state overreach.
- The proposal contrasts with Venezuela's historical state management of oil revenue, which has resulted in massive waste and institutional destruction, suggesting that citizen ownership is a better path to development.