U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday (local time) met senior oil industry executives at the White House, urging them to commit to large-scale investment to revive Venezuela’s vast but underutilised petroleum reserves following recent U.S. military action in the Latin American country.
Describing the discussions as “great,” Trump said the meeting had laid the groundwork for a broad investment framework that could channel hundreds of billions of dollars into oil exploration and production. He argued that such a move would benefit both nations by boosting energy output and helping to lower global oil prices.
“We just had a great meeting with the oil executives. We sort of formed a deal. They’re going to be going in with hundreds of billions of dollars and drilling oil — and it’s good for Venezuela and it’s great for the United States,” Trump told reporters. He added that the initiative would generate substantial revenue and further ease oil prices, which he noted were already trending downward.
U.S. Pushes Oil Firms to Revive Venezuela’s Output
During the White House roundtable, Trump encouraged oil executives to commit as much as $100 billion in private investment to rebuild Venezuela’s deteriorated oil infrastructure. He also promised “total safety” for companies willing to operate in the country, stating that firms would work directly with the United States rather than Venezuelan authorities.
The meeting was attended by executives from Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and more than a dozen other major oil and gas companies. It took place just days after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a dramatic night-time operation in Caracas.
Venezuela’s oil production has fallen to below one million barrels per day, a fraction of its historical output. A central challenge for the Trump administration will be convincing energy companies that a stable framework exists under Venezuela’s interim leadership and that sufficient legal and security protections will be provided. While interim President Delcy Rodríguez has publicly criticised Trump and the removal of Maduro, the U.S. president has claimed that she has cooperated discreetly with Washington.
‘Venezuela Operation Will Make U.S. Richer’: Vance
Vice President JD Vance, who joined Trump at a press briefing earlier in the day, framed the Venezuela strategy as part of a broader effort to strengthen U.S. economic and national security interests. He went further, linking expanded energy production to domestic issues such as combating drug overdose deaths.
“The operation in Venezuela is going to make our country richer, it’s going to make our country more powerful, it’s going to make our country safer, and it’s going to lead to the further decline of drug overdose deaths in the United States of America,” Vance said.
Since the military operation that led to Maduro’s capture last Saturday, the Trump administration has increasingly portrayed the intervention as a strategic economic opportunity. According to the Associated Press, U.S. authorities have seized tankers carrying Venezuelan crude and assumed control over the sale of between 30 million and 50 million barrels of previously sanctioned oil, with plans to manage global sales for the foreseeable future.
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