#302 - How To Make A FORTUNE From Trumps Takeover

Trump just gave you a way to make a fortune, and 99% of investors will completely miss it. Most people hear Trump and Venezuela, and they think politics, they think chaos, and they think it's got nothing to do with them. But if you knew what to look for, you'd see something completely different. you'd see oil, you would see power, you would see sanctions lifting, and you'd see one company, just one, that's positioned better than anyone else on the planet to make billions from this

shift. I'm talking about the largest proven oil reserves in the world. a company that's already on the ground and a political realignment that just changes absolutely everything. So in this video, I'm going to show you exactly why this company is about to print money and how you can position yourself to profit before the rest of the market wakes up. It isn't speculation, this is

structure, this is positioning and this is incentives. I'm Lloyd James Ross, seven figure investor and entrepreneur and I've helped thousands of business owners and professionals turn financial stress into success. If you're stuck in old money habits, overwhelmed by investing or unsure where to start, this is for you. I'll give you the mindset and strategies to take control, grow your wealth and achieve financial freedom. It's time to make your money work for you.

Why Venezuela suddenly matters again. So Venezuela isn't just another struggling country. It sits on the world's largest proven oil reserves of heavy crude on the planet. Here's the problem. Years of sanctions by the states have crushed the oil production there. The infrastructure has been dilapidated, it's collapsed, capital has fled, and oil output fell from three to four million barrels a day to a fraction of that. But here's the reality. The oil is still there. The

US still wants energy security, particularly against China. And global supply remains tight, and demand's going up and up and up and up. A political shift changes everything when it comes to oil. So why has the Trump administration changed the game here? Well, Trump's always been energy first. You know, drill, baby, drill. And certainly America first. So here's why that matters. Trump's prioritizing cheap,

reliable oil supply. And he's far more willing to cut deals and enforce a long-term isolation of that than anyone else. He wants to weaken it geopolitically against China and Russia by controlling energy flows, particularly in Venezuela. So if Venezuela reopens under a Trump framework, which it looks like it will be, it won't be charity. It will be absolutely transactional. And

that means the US companies get in first. And he just recently had a meeting with those US companies, and he had them all in the Oval Office. He brought them in, and they're all there. Mobil, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, all the major oil companies, particularly in the United States. And so he's wanting, and he said this many times in the past, he's wanting oil to be cheap. And so that's better for the everyday American, who

he stands for, right? But most importantly, he also knows that if he didn't do what he did with Venezuela, China was about, in fact, China was already there on the ground. They'd already sent diplomats to negotiate oil deals with Venezuela as they bombed, sorry, as they kidnapped the dictator of Venezuela. So he made a mark. And the reason why he wanted to do that is because he knew if he didn't do it,

China was about to take the oil. If you think about this, what has happened in the world is there's a massive race to AGI, basically

artificial general intelligence. And everybody knows that the country who achieves AGI first wins. What's this got to do with oil, right? And the reason why it's got to do with oil is because you can't build data centers. You can't build, well, you can't really build anything and develop anything without oil. A lot of people don't realize that feedstock, which is all the things required to create plastics and build anything in the world, is all about oil. If we look at who produces the most oil,

it's the United States. So they're very oil-thirsty. However, China is certainly oil-thirsty as well. So China's intention was to take or do a deal with Venezuela to take all the heavy crude and send it out to China. So China was buying the heavy crude from Venezuela. And of course, they're buying it from Russia. So both the United States and China have got this thirst, endless thirst for oil. And so Trump and the administration is like, well, if Venezuela is in our backyard, it's

right below us. This is our backyard. And China's coming to take the oil from our own backyard. Are you kidding me? That ain't going to happen. So what they did was they took matters in their own hands. They went and they kidnapped the dictator of Venezuela. in an incredible move by the special forces. And they then now have taken over effectively Venezuela. And Venezuela was sending oil money to Cuba. So now Cuba's in trouble and it's destabilized that region in terms of the deals that were

happening. And it certainly put a wrench in the spoke of China's wheel on its bike. So now the US does control Venezuela,

which has got arguably, in fact, it has, I think it's to the tune of about three I want to say 300 billion barrels of oil there. But it's heavy crude. And what I mean by that is heavy crude is not easy to refine. And heavy crude is more used in jet fuel, rocket fuel, and feedstock. But it's super important. And so what's interesting about that is that now that Venezuela has been taken over, Trump's like, well, now how do we get the oil out of the ground? Because as I said, the infrastructure is

dilapidated. There's not a lot of security on the ground there. Even ExxonMobil, the CEO of Exxon in the office of Trump the other day, said, hey, it's actually uninvestable. And Trump's like, well, ExxonMobil is not getting in there. So they went on board. But it tells you that there's oil in the ground, but it's like, how do we get it out? And so I think what's going to happen is the companies that can successfully do that are going to

be best positioned right now. So out of all the oil companies, let's have a look at the oil companies for a second. This is important for you to understand. There was a company once founded

by John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in the world. And he developed and founded and scaled a company called Standard Oil. And Standard Oil, at one point in time, cornered the market and really owned 85% of the refining market. Can you believe that? 85% of the oil refining market was owned by John Deere Rockefeller. That's why he became the richest man in the world. And once upon, well, about in the thirties or forties, they went through an antitrust.

It might've been in the early thirties. They went through an antitrust court case where they broke up John D. Rockefeller's company, Standard Oil, and they broke it up into different companies. And the companies that have ventuated from that are ExxonMobil, Chevron, I believe some versions of Shell, but basically it's all progeny of Standard Oil. And so the largest oil companies in the States are real progeny of Standard Oil. And Chevron is one of those. In

fact, Chevron is arguably one of the biggest. It's not quite as big as ExxonMobil, which is the biggest, but Chevron would have to be the second biggest and one of the most well-known brands when it comes to oil. It's a very fully integrated oil company. And it explores oil, drills for oil, it refines oil, and it also distributes oil through its products and its service stations as well. So it's what's called a fully integrated oil producer and refiner. And it is a powerful company.

And here's why Chevron specifically is positioned perfectly to actually take advantage of this Venezuela situation, right? Chevron

isn't just hoping to enter Venezuela, right? They're actually already there. They're on the ground. In fact, Chevron has been in Venezuela for 100 years. So even with the sanctions, Chevron decided to do some deals there and stay on the ground, right? So Chevron's got lasting, long-standing joint ventures in Venezuela already. It already understands the fields. It already understands the geology. It already understands and has the logistics in

place. It's got existing relationships and obviously, as I said, it's got a huge operating history there. So it can scale faster than any new entrant straight away, right? So as the sanctions start to loosen, and we all know speed wins, Chevron doesn't need to start from zero. So as I said, what makes Chevron effective in that space is it's got first mover advantage, but also it's an integrated fortress. So it's got this massive advantage of not just being, not just pulling

the oil out of the ground there, which they're great at, right? It's going to be the matter of they can take it, they can refine it, et cetera. So here's what happens to Chevron. It produces oil. upstream so up there's two parts of oil the oil industry in oil companies there's upstream which does the exploration and drilling extracts it from the ground and then there's downstream which is actually the refining. So they take the crude, the core

product, and they refine it into multiple different things, incidentally. Just to give you an explanation of what it can do, oil can be refined into what's called heavy. If it's heavy crude, which is what's in Venezuela, they can develop heavy crude for feedstock, for jet fuel, and for aeroplane fuel and for plastics, et cetera, it's really good. And bitumen, so asphalt and bitumen, which is a very important part of the construction industry. So all of our roads, asphalt,

bitumen, so it comes from heavy crude oil. It's the hardest to refine, but what it does as well, it takes the oil and it refines it into, it can refine it into light crude as well, depending on the, beginnings of what the product looks like and from there it can also develop it into kerosene it can develop it into petrol as we know it like gasoline it can also develop it into gas, natural gas. So there's all these layers of the refining process that

it can develop and then you can sell all these products, right? So the thing with Chevron is it produces upstream, so it drills and explores. Explores

and drills, I should say. Gets it out, refines it, which is the downstream. It owns that too. And it also transports to markets and distributes it across the globe. So it makes money. It's fully vertically integrated as a oil company, which is what makes it an absolute fortress in the world, right? Inarguably the most important product in the world. And if you don't think oil

matters, I have some news for you. If oil didn't exist, we would all pretty much perish and die. Why? Because not only are all the product like this desk, everything you see on my desk has got oil in it. Everything, everything, this oil, people don't realize this. And they're like, oh, oil's bad, really? And the other thing too is it powers all of the machinery for large-scale farming that creates all of our food. So if you don't have oil, bye-bye food. Billions

of people starve. Just quickly, if you're ready to take control of your finances but feel stuck on where to start, I have a solution. My book, Money Bias Happiness, simplifies investing and wealth building with practical steps to help you achieve financial peace.

Get your copy via the link in the show notes and let's get your money working for you. Now back to the episode. You have to understand that Chevron's got a very long history. In fact, Chevron's been around since the 1800s effectively. very long-standing company, very safe, very effective company, which is why Warren Buffett, he's got 7% of his portfolio allocated to Chevron stock and also in oxy. So about 11% to 12% of Warren Buffett's Berkshire portfolio, which is worth

a bank, the portfolio is about $280 billion. So $30 to $40 billion is allocated to oil. So that's a little bit of a little tip. That's why he sees Chevron as the leader at the moment in the oil industry. So why

this matters for the likes of Venezuela, right? So going back to the type of oil that's there, it is crude oil. It's heavy and complex crude. So it requires very specialized refining. So smaller players can't handle it efficiently, right? And so Chevron can, because Chevron has got the ability to pull out heavy crude and refine

it. And so what that means for Chevron is if it already knows how to do it, it's already there, they're already on the ground, more or less what's going to happen is they're going to have better margins because there's less cost to extract it straight away. There's lower friction, there's faster monetization. So they're way better positioned than any other oil company to go and extract it and put and sell it and make money.

And the other thing too is that they're very, the lower cost you can pull oil out of the ground and refine it and sell it, because there's costs all along the way in that integrated business model. But if you can have the lowest cost to extract it, you literally just, you're untouchable, right? So low cost producers in a commodity driven business, win every single cycle, right? And oil is a commodity, right?

Oil, it is, it's a commodity. A barrel's a barrel. Like a barrel of oil now is about 60 US dollars. And so it will fluctuate. It can go up to a hundred, which it was. It can go, I mean, back in 2020 after COVID, it actually went to negative. In fact, they were paying you money to store oil as well. They've given it away. That's the first time I think in recorded history that's happened like that. But with

commodity driven businesses, the lowest cost producer always wins. So Chevron's strength, is extremely low breakeven

costs. Massive cash flow, even at the lowest oil prices. So as all the juniors are starting to go bankrupt, which they pretty well do, they pretty much go broke at like $50 to $40 a barrel, which is kind of where it's oscillating at the minute. So a lot of them are struggling. They're not even drilling right now. So a lot of the demand for oil is growing. It is. The world needs more oil, especially with the AI boom. It's like this

thirst for oil like never seen before. But because the price of oil at a barrel is low, no one's drilling, which means the supply of oil is dwindling. And if you understand what that means, if supply is low and demand is high, we're going to see a massive oil boom. Warren Buffett says that when oil goes back and booms, it goes to the next cycle, which he knows it will. That's why he's positioned there. He said it's not going to go back to $100. He anticipates it's going to

go beyond $200 a barrel. There you go. The ability for Chevron to operate, not only in Venezuela, but in general, at a cost that's way below everyone else of its competitors, it's going to survive. And it may even start buying up the juniors that go broke. That's what's effective about that company. So what happens? What does this mean when Venezuelan supply increases, right? Well, firstly, Chevron survives this price pressure that's happening. And

that will happen if there's more supply come online, right? High cost competitors don't survive, it wins market share, it consolidates. And that's what makes it an incredible company. But here's the hidden cash flow that nobody really understands and talks about. Chevron already generates massive amounts of free cash flow. In fact, they just did an investor day where Mike Worth, who's the CEO of Chevron, incredible leader, they literally, and

you can find this on YouTube as well. It's like sending someone to another channel. If you watch it, they talk about in the next five years, it's going to create substantial amounts of free cash flow, give it back in dividends and share buybacks all to the shareholders, because they don't have to use all this money to drill new wells and explore. That's already

been done. All the cash flow has been spent. Now they just get to print money. And if the price of oil doubles from here, they're going to print so much free cash flow. It's going to be crazy. So as Venezuela then reopens, it adds incremental production with that massive new R&D spend for them, because they're already there. The existing infrastructure is pretty much on

the ground. It's going to reactivate it. And the cash flow growth, as I said, will happen without balance sheet stress of having to spend any more money. That's the holy grail. That's more cash without more risk. and why this again benefits shareholders directly,

guess what? Chevron is so good at distributing wealth to its shareholders. It doesn't waste cash. It's very capitally disciplined. Is that a word, capitally disciplined? The capital priorities are, and they've outlined this in the last presentation to show, only like probably a month and a half ago. They'll grow the dividend. It's already high. It's already almost 5%. In fact, the dividend is probably 4.5% right now as I record this. That's

very high, four and a half, it's what you can get at the bank, right? And they're going to grow it. And they've grown that dividend for something like, I think it's off the top of my head, it's like 35 years they've had dividend growth, consecutive yearly dividend growth. Wild, right? That's something like a CAGR of like five or 6%, so more than the rate of inflation. So it's going to get progressively better and better and better. They maintain a fortress

balance sheet, so they manage their debt really well. Of course, when they got free cash flow, they'll buy back shares. So it eliminates the shares that are already there and makes your shares even more valuable. And it acquires very high quality assets at a very low cost. So, I mean, it's set to just dominate, which is why Warren Buffett's got such a big position in the company, right? So,

more cash from Venezuela, which will happen for them. Higher dividend safety, faster dividend growth, more buybacks and stronger long-term compounding from the underlying shares, right? And this is how oil wealth can turn into shareholder wealth for you, right, as an example. And I think a lot of people mistakenly think that if you're going to get into the oil business, you have to own the actual commodity itself. That's not how I've seen the

major investors do it. That's not how I do it. If you ever want to be in the commodity game, it's about owning the company that mines, refines and sells. that particular commodity. That's how Warren Buffett plays the commodity, I shouldn't say plays the commodity market, but positions to make money from the commodity market. And that's what I'm talking about right now in this episode, right? So why is Chevron still at a reasonable price? Why is it

still paying a 5% dividend? Why isn't it just exploiting, right? And what happens is the market lumps all the oil companies together. They're like, oh, it's just, they're all the same. And they're not, right? They also obsess over ESG headlines. That's for like environmental safety guidelines. Like it's the environmental impact. They're like, oh my god. One time, Exxon Valdez spilled oil. And it's not great. It sucks. I

think you can go overboard with ESG, right? That's what happens. And so they underestimate how slow the energy transition actually moves. They miss how, they certainly miss how durable oil demand still is. In fact, it's going up from the AI boom, as I said, how critical heavy crude remains with all the bitumen, all the asphalt required and all the other things in feedstock it's needed for. So it's like heavy crude is the last oil that will ever not be needed. And I

would anticipate that we'll need it for another 100 years at least. I just don't see it. It's not easily disrupted by renewables. This is not. how advantaged Chevron's position actually and truly is, because a lot of people don't even realize that they're the only oil major that's on the ground in Venezuela. And how policy shifts can be absolute asymmetric winners when you're investing. Okay, so this is

all the due diligence that you have to understand when you're investing. This is why most people should just buy an index fund and call it a day, because this is what's required. It's so interesting to position yourself in a place where there's not much competition, right? So Chevron's not just another oil company, it's best in class. Yes. The risk everyone needs to acknowledge, though, is this. It's not risk-free, right? Some of the risks include this. The sanctions reversing,

okay? Political instability inside Venezuela, like, you know, is it going to be secure for them to be on the ground? And again, the CEO of Exxon said potentially it's not. Execution delays, right? It's probably going to take four to five years to rebuild the infrastructure to a point where they can even extract the oil. So it's going to take time as well, yeah? Faster than expected global energy transition. I

don't think that matters in this particular scenario. People are thinking about that like, oh, will oil be needed? I don't even think there's a risk, to be honest, especially with the heavy crew. I just don't think that's going to be replaced, right? So here's the key distinction. Chevron has the balance sheet. the scale and the diversification to absorb these risks better than almost anyone. All right, so here's the big picture takeaway from this episode. As

Trump reopens Venezuela, that's his intention. Very obvious that's going to happen. Oil flow, particularly heavy crude, will increase. The US interests are prioritized. China's pushed away to the side. In fact, the U.S. has said China can still take Venezuelan oil, but they'll be buying it off us. What a deal. This is quite funny, too, because people don't realize. They're like, what? The U.S. dollar is not backed by anything. I'm like, really?

Well, it just secured the largest oil reserves in the world in one day. So the US dollar is backed by the world's most powerful military that just takes what they want. So don't give me that it's not backed by anything, it's backed by that. How else can you create wealth so quickly, right? Imagine what happens if they take Greenland. They underestimate the U.S. dollar is backed by the U.S. military, right? Low-cost integrated majors win, and the one

that's on the ground right now is Chevron. It sits at the intersection of the politics, so it's favored by Trump. It's energy security that the US needs. It's very much needed. The infrastructure is already there. The cash flow is going to increase already, even without Venezuela. And they're really good at giving it back to shareholders. So that's why Chevron stands to make more money than almost any other company from the Venezuelan reset. All right, so here's my final thought

on this. The biggest fortunes, just so you know, aren't made by predicting headlines. They aren't. They're made by understanding a few things. What are the incentives? What's the structure? Who has the power? And where's the positioning? And if you look at all those things right now, Chevron's positioned exactly where the money flows as Venezuela reopens. And it even makes money even if it doesn't, right? So there's limited downside, massive upside. So if you want more deep dives like this,

hit the subscribe button. Because most people you know, they're not gonna see opportunities like this unless they watch something like our channel So if you've enjoyed it hit the sub button share this with someone else and of course leave a comment in the comments below I'd love to know what do you think about Venezuela? Are you positioned to dominate the oil market? And most importantly I'm excited for it, too. I just shared on my stories yesterday in our on

Instagram, our positions in oil. And so if you're interested in that, go follow me on Instagram as well. And I'd love to continue the conversation. Are you positioned in oil? What do you think is gonna happen? Leave us a comment. I'll come and talk to you then, and I'll see you in the next episode. Thanks for listening to Money Grows on Trees. If you enjoyed the episode, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and subscribe to us on YouTube so you never

miss an episode. And if you're serious about building wealth, make sure to check out the links in the show notes and follow me on all social media platforms, Lloyd James Ross for more. See