Due to U.S. sanctions, economic decline, and outdated infrastructure, Venezuela’s maximum rate of oil production is fewer than 1 million barrels per day. To sustain its current output would cost $53 billion over the next 15 years, and to triple it would cost nearly $200 billion over the same time frame. It's a costly and unnecessary venture given that the world already has an oversupply of oil—and it won't do anything to solve the problem of rising energy costs.