Venezuela Has World's Largest Oil Reserves But No Gas - How Is This Possible?

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Did you know Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves, but people wait hours just to buy gasoline that costs [music] more than Coca-Cola? This is the mind-bending reality of a country that was once so [music] rich, they called it Saudi Venezuela. Today, they print trillion bolivar notes that are literally worth less than toilet paper.

[00:00:17]But Venezuela's contradictions [music] don't stop there. This is the same country that's home to Angel Falls, the world's tallest waterfall at 3,200 ft.

[00:00:26]They've produced more Miss Universe winners per capita [music] than anywhere else on Earth. The arepa, their national dish, became a survival food during economic collapse. [music] Lake Maracaibo gets struck by lightning 300 nights every single year, making it the lightning capital of the world.

[00:00:43]Here's the craziest part. Venezuela exports crude oil to other countries, but has to import refined gasoline because their own refineries collapsed.

[00:00:51][music] People are literally abandoning their cars because they can't afford fuel in a country floating on an ocean of oil. How does a petroleum superpower [music] end up like this?