Bloomberg Surveillance · Monday, August 31, 2026
Paul Sankey of Sankey Research dismissed President Trump's announcement of a deal with Venezuela for oil reserves as largely irrelevant to current market issues. He argued that the U.S. has sufficient oil and gas supply and that the real problem lies in refining capacity, not crude availability.
“Well, I think a lot of this is just fiddling while Rome burns, you know, what we've got here is a $ 4 gallon gasoline price and a $ 5. 50 diesel.”
“And we're talking about Venezuelan oil reserves when we really don't need Venezuelan oil reserves.”
“So, I just think it's, you know, a bit of a sideshow, quite frankly.”