There's a lot more crude oil coming from Venezuela into Texas these days after President Donald Trump's special military operation that began January 3rd.
The operation ended up in the arrest of Venezuelan President Nocolas Maduro and his wife, leaving that nation in somewhat more cooperative hands with acting Venezuelan leader and Maduro's former deputy, Delcy Rodríguez.
And the oil has resumed flowing from Venezuela.
"Absolutely we know how to handle Venezuelan oil here in America, especially in the great state of Texas," says Pecos Operating Company's "R. T." Trevino, and it's also about time for more refineries to be built here to handle the increasing amount of oil Venezuela will be sending us.
"What a benefit this would be for Texas to have more jobs at the refinery level with this oil coming in now from Venezuela," he says.
The amount of oil coming in is only a fraction of the amount of oil Texas needs to meet its requirements, of course, about half a million barrels is what American oil companies are sending -- but it's a lot more than was coming in before President Trump's special operation.
And plenty more oil will be on its way now that Chevron may be joined by Exxon Mobil and others in drilling new wells and/or reviving older wells to increase the flow.
Mr. Trevino says he'd like to see lots more Canadian oil moving into the US too, because it may be years before consistent big flows of Venezuelan crude move into Texas.
"Realistically we're looking at almost a 48-month turnaround to where we can actually see significant oil being produced by Venezuela again."
But there's every reason to be optimistic, especially with the uncertainties arising from the wars in Ukraine and Iran, he adds.