January 5, 2026 | 10:50 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - U.S. President Donald Trump has openly stated that he will allow American oil companies to enter Venezuela to manage the country’s vast crude oil reserves.
Speaking on Saturday, the 79-year-old president said U.S. energy firms would invest billions of dollars in Venezuela following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Trump emphasized that American investment in Venezuela’s oil sector was a central objective of what he described as a regime change operation.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies — the biggest anywhere in the world — go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure,” Trump said at a press conference at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida, as quoted by CNBC.
“Let’s start making money for the country,” he added.
Trump said U.S. oil companies would directly cover the costs of rebuilding Venezuela’s oil infrastructure and would later be compensated.
“They will be reimbursed for what they’re doing,” he said.
“We’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be,” Trump continued. “We’ll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries, many of whom are using it now, but I would say many more will come.”
Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in 1976, seizing assets from major international energy firms to form the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA).
Washington has imposed economic sanctions on Venezuela since 2017, followed by restrictions on the oil sector two years later.
According to data from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Venezuela’s oil production has fallen to below one million barrels per day, with much of it reportedly sold on the black market at steep discounts.
Trump accused the Venezuelan government of misusing oil revenues to finance criminal activities, claiming that Caracas uses the funds for drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder, and kidnapping.
Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves—estimated at 303 billion barrels, or about 17 percent of global reserves—according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. However, production has plunged over the years due to mismanagement and corruption.
Venezuelan crude is also heavier and lower in quality, making it more suitable for producing diesel and derivative products such as asphalt rather than gasoline. Several U.S. refineries in the Gulf of Mexico are specifically designed to process this type of oil.
At the start of his second term in 2025, Trump revoked various authorizations allowing multinational oil companies to operate in Venezuela, granting an exception only to Chevron.
The company currently operates four oil fields in partnership with PDVSA and its affiliates and exported about 140,000 barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to data from energy consultancy Kpler.
The United States has also imposed a total blockade on tanker vessels entering and leaving Venezuela as part of its economic pressure campaign.
U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife in a major raid in the South American country early Saturday. They have been charged with drug trafficking offenses in the Southern District of New York. Maduro’s ouster followed months of increased U.S. military presence in the Caribbean.
Read: Death Toll from U.S. Military Operation in Venezuela Hits 80
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