India, Aug. 30 -- On Friday, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration had made an agreement with Venezuela's interim government to secure control of the country's oil reserves - the world's largest, as per current estimates. In keeping with his style, Trump has described the deal as a game-changer for the US economy, which is currently facing high fuel costs because of the war in West Asia. Trump will try his best to portray it as a big achievement before the US mid-term polls in November.

Whether, and more importantly, when, the described benefits materialise for the US economy, is going to be more complicated than what Trump is claiming. Venezuela's oil fields have suffered from decades of mismanagement and will requ...