- [Drew] It's mind blowing how long the lines are
to get gas.
- That's crazy.
- [Drew] What do you want to say
about the gas situation in Venezuela?
- Well, it has always been wrong, you know,
when it was almost free, it was wrong.
So now it's all messed up
because we're having real world gas prices
and it's all messy.
- Despite that we are the country
with the most oil in the world,
we don't produce gasoline in here
because the government has damaged all the gasoline plants
and fabrics and everything.
So we have to export oil
and buy gasoline from outside.
Stupidly crazy.
- Anywhere there is a gas station,
there's conflict.
Struggle there's like bars,
police, and military men, and mayhem.
- [Driver] They put gasoline again,
and they can storage.
- [Drew] So he's storing it in the bottle?
- [Driver] Yeah, they're storing it in the bottle, yeah.
(foreign language)
- No, they don't want you to film her.
- [Marena] Gracias.
- They have three hours, three hours...
- [Drew] Three hours in this line?
- In this line, and after this corner,
it's like two miles to the right
to get into the gas station.
Two miles, you want to go?
- No, so these people spend all day waiting
in line just to get gas?
- To get the subsidiary gas,
the cheap gas.
- [Drew] The free one?
- The free one that is like a full tank, $1.
(gentle instrumental music)
- So as we sit here in the gasoline line
which is a pretty surreal experience here in Venezuela
it blows my mind to think that this country is so full
of natural oil and wealth in terms of gasoline
but they don't even have enough gas to serve it's people.
There are shortages all over the country.
So in this video, we're going to investigate the oil
and gas crisis of Venezuela.
(upbeat instrumental music)
If there's one thing that I've learned from traveling
to 194 countries, it is that oil makes the world go round.
It's the most sought after natural resource,
our primary fuel,
and it's a major force in the production
of goods and services.
And I'm not only talking about gasoline,
jet fuel, and heating oil
but any products that use plastic, asphalt, wax or paint.
Pretty much everything we use in our daily lives.
I'm pretty sure you already know that Venezuela has
been experiencing the biggest economic downfall
in the history of mankind.
And the main driver for this is, well, you guessed it, oil.
- They have enough oil in Venezuela
to embarrass the Saudi's.
They are swimming in oil.
What did they do when they had peak oil prices?
Nothing.
- [Drew] In the 1920s, the largest oil reserve on earth
was discovered off the Caribbean coast of Venezuela,
and pretty quickly the country became the world's
largest oil exporters' supplying 10% of global needs.
For a very long time things were fine and dandy
until a combination of mismanagement, US sanctions,
and now a pandemic has crippled its oil production
and sent its economy to pieces.
In short, the government has become too dependent
on the export of oil and without any foreign investment
coming in the oil output is the lowest level in decades.
Combined that with an absurd amount of debt
in the most severe hyperinflation ever seen,
and the situation has evolved into more
of a humanitarian crisis with shortages of basic food,
drinking water, medical supplies, and gasoline.
(foreign language)
- He said they're recycling plastic,
steel, everything you can find to resell it then
because they're looking for money, of course.
(foreign language)
They say, my daily food is breakfast, lunch
and dinner from the garbage.
- [Drew] As I currently make this video.
91% of Venezuelans are living in poverty,
the highest proportion in all of Latin America
and even worse over 5 million of them have left the country.
(foreign language)
- So the government right now,
the situation in Venezuela is a bit difficult.
- [Drew] Let's back up and get a little more detailed
about how Venezuela's mismanagement
of oil has led them into this giant economic mess.
In 1976, President Carlos Perez nationalized the industry
by creating a PDVSA,
which is a state owned oil and gas company.
At its height they were pumping 3 million barrels per day
and the money was rolling in.
That's how Caracas was built as one of the richest cities
in Latin America with a thriving middle class
and the strongest currency.
Which as you probably know, is completely worthless today.
(foreign language)
- Look, look, they're the same.
And this is 50,000
- [Drew] Wait, so they just changed...
- Yeah, the color and the numbers.
That's so tacky, it's so lame.
This doesn't mean anything right now, anything.
500 (foreign language) and 500 bolivers
before they take out five zeros.
- [Drew] In 1999 President Hugo Chavez came to power
and established a socialist regime.
He created programs to help the poor,
such as raising the minimum wage
and providing free electricity,
free water and basic food to all households.
- What we have here is a bag with food
of the subsidized program that the government has
for the people in need.
They're just giving like eight kilos of rice,
three kilos of flour, and two kilos of spaghetti, of pasta.
- [Cameraman] Totally free?
- Yeah, yeah, totally free.
- [Drew] But most of all,
he produced heavily subsidized gasoline, AKA free.
- The gasoline prices are so ridiculously low
that if you were to have a hundred dollars,
change them at the black market exchange rate,
and buy gasoline with them,
you will have enough gas to run a few laps
around earth.
- [Drew] With a hundred dollars?
- Yes, with even less,
you could do a few laps to the whole world.
- [Drew] That's insane.
- Now, when gasoline is very, very cheap in Venezuela
compared to everyone else.
So, you have an incentives to smuggle gasoline.
And, smuggling gasoline from Venezuela to Colombia,
due to the price differential,
it was potentially perhaps the most profitable business
in the history of humanity.
- [Drew] Really?
- Well, it's hard to represent,
but tell me what other economic endeavor gives you
return rates of over a billion percent?
- [Drew] When President Maduro took office in 2013
pretty much everything took a turn for the worst.
Within just two years, oil prices fell
from $100 per barrel to under $30 per barrel
further sucking Venezuela into a downward economic spiral.
What is this building right here?
- This is a fabric or a oil refinery
where they track the oil.
And also these one, like two months ago
was a massive oil spread in the coast of Venezuela.
- [Drew] Maduro is now being forced to import fuel from Iran
for the country's own consumption
because much of their own reserves have run completely dry.
As of the year 2020 international gas stations
with international prices have popped up around the country.
- We're heading to international price gasoline.
I think still the cheapest in the world
is 50 cents per liter.
I have two tanks, so I have 150 liters.
That will be like $75.
- [Drew] But that's a lot of gas.
- Yeah, I have 150 liters.
I put two tanks because if you go to the amazing places
of the country, you probably won't find a gas station
in 400 kilometers, something like that.
So you have to have gasoline, you know.
- [Drew] However, most people cannot afford
to pay the international price for gasoline.
So they are still going to the heavily subsidized ones
which explains why I keep on seeing unbelievably long lines
to fill up your gas tank.
There must've been like hundreds of cars in that line.
- This is a gasoline line.
And you see this car, for example,
it's totally empty that he's pushing the car until the line.
And also the cop is helping to push the car.
They tried to keep control of the line
and also help people.
- So he completely ran out of gas?
- Yeah, totally out of gas.
- All these cars behind me are waiting in line
to fill up their tank.
And it just goes on for ever.
- All the way down, man.
- [Drew] You can't even see the end of the line.
- Probably 500 meters or a kilometer.
- [Drew] And people have no problem waiting
three hours to fill up their tank?
- And we're in the middle of the city, man.
- [Drew] What's up, bro?
How are you? (foreign language)
How does it feel that you have to wait
in line so long to fill up your tank?
(foreign language)
- He said he is already customed to it.
- [Drew] How do you decide which gas stand to go to?
And when to go?
(foreign language)
- He said it just random,
he is like in the neighborhood,
and they go around and they see how far the line is
and if they can, you know, just not be the whole day there.
- Dude, in the US if you have to wait an hour
to fill your tank, do you have any idea how people...
if you have to wait five minutes to fill your tank
people will lose their (beep) and be like, you know.
- It makes no sense to me.
- It's crazy.
But that's just the situation here in Venezuela.
- [Drew] There's nobody in the cars, man.
- Because probably they start making the line
and there was no gas in the gas stations,
so they just leave the cars to save the spot.
- [Drew] For real?
- Yeah. It's still there.
Oh, look at there.
Yeah, he's going that way.
- [Drew] Whoa. Why did they leave the cars?
- Just to save this spot,
because sometimes someone says like the gasoline
truck is coming.
They just put the car in front of the gas station.
Even if there is no gasoline, just to save the spot.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- [Drew] In all of my travels,
I've never seen a situation like this
where you literally have to wait hours
and hours sometimes even days
and weeks just to fill up your gas tank.
And it's not only occasionally,
or in one area of the country,
it's literally every single gas station in Venezuela.
All right, we are rolling up now to get gas here in Caracas,
they just put a barricade behind your car.
See, they put like a thing.
- No, no, it was there.
- So what's happening right now?
- We're trying to put gas again.
But, today we weren't that lucky.
They said that we have to leave lot of space
because it comes somebody important or from the government
they have to put it in the first spot.
I mean, like people from the ministries or whatever,
they didn't do line.
(foreign language)
He practically said that I have to make a U-turn
in the middle of the highway,
literally, just to go back and make the line.
- This is bizarre.
So like, it's just a regular gas station
that we're rolling up to,
but some government thing's going on,
so we can't even get in.
- They're making us do the line,
I don't know, 300 meters back.
You see, this is like a military tent.
- [Drew] What are they doing?
There's like 15 military sitting on the wall.
- Nothing, nothing.
- [Drew] Why are they here?
- What they regularly do is be like in the middle
of the highway with a cone in the middle of the highway.
- [Drew] Yeah, I see them over there.
- Just trying to stop whoever they think is suspicious,
ask for papers, anything,
and if they see a possibility to take out some money,
they do it.
- [Drew] So there's a lot of bribing happening.
- A lot, a lot, a lot.
- All right, now we just got access.
We're rolling up here.
What if they see my camera, what happens?
- They just don't want anything to show what is happening.
- And we're in, finally.
So, time to fill up our gas tank.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- We were so (beep) lucky.
They just closed the gas station before I leave.
Close it.
- [Drew] Why (beep)
- Because they run into a procedure of counting the gas,
or (beep), I don't know.
- And then we've just got chips that taste
like they're from 2005.
(laughing)
So I guess the question now becomes, where is the end?
Does Venezuela have a way to dig themselves out
of this crazy economic crisis?
In my opinion, the government's major objective should be
to use the oil earnings responsibly,
which means investing back into the economy
by building infrastructure
and educating its people.
Also making sure that everything is done transparently
so the locals can know exactly what's happening.
And we can try to end all of this corruption.
- For a country that was once,
that it was actually being prosperous.
That illusion not only came down crushing,
but it became one of the worst self-inflicted
economic disasters in the Western hemisphere
and recent history.
It's a country that had,
that it looked like it had a promise,
it made a few mistakes, but then it made plenty of mistakes.
And now when people ask me if the Venezuelan economy
has a future?
And it does,
it's just that it's not bright.
- [Drew] Thank you so much for your time.
(mysterious instrumental music)
It is so nerve wracking to shoot in this country
but specifically in gas stations
and supermarkets and stuff, it is like scary.
You don't want them to see your camera.
They can't see it from here, it's down.
- I told you, he was...
- The bodyguard?
- I thought it was the bodyguard from the...
- Oh man, that's a good shot with that guy.
What a situation?
- That's the bread of everyday.
- [Drew] The bread?
(foreign language)
- It's like my daily habit, you know,
dealing with this mother (beep).
People say like, Oh, you shouldn't be
like that because you live there
and they may see if they watch your videos
whatever they would say something,
or maybe look for you but I'm not afraid of Brahma.
I mean, I'm not doing anything bad.
I'm just, I just have the right to express
what I (beep) feel and the situation with the cops in here.
I could try to understand them that the (beep) government
pays him like $1 per month, but that's not my trouble.
They could find another job, you know?
- I'm Drew Binsky,
and if you like my travel videos,
please click subscribe and ring that little bell
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as I take you to every single country in the world.