The United States will “get the oil flowing the way it should be” in Venezuela with the help of oil companies, President Donald Trump said in a news conference after U.S. forces snatched Nicolás Maduro, the country’s leader, in a surprise operation Jan. 3.
The Trump administration’s capture of Maduro will open up Venezuela’s massive, state-owned oil reserves to oil giants previously blocked from access, Trump promised in a news conference after the stunning overnight military operation.
“We’re going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars,” Trump said. The cost will be “paid for by the oil companies directly,” but they will be “reimbursed,” he said.
“We’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be,” he added.
Trump made the comments as he announced a hazy plan for the U.S. to “run” Venezuela until a new leader could be selected.
As Trump upped the pressure on Maduro in the months leading up to the stunning operation to capture him by force in Caracas, he accused Venezuela of stealing U.S. oil and ordered U.S. forces to blockade oil tankers from doing business with the country. With Maduro removed from power and en route to face trial in the U.S., oil companies will play a large part in that plan, Trump said.
The U.S. will have a “presence in Venezuela, as it pertains to oil,” he said.
Trump said the U.S. will continue to sell oil to other countries that bought Venezuelan oil exports, like Russia and China.
“We’ll be selling oil, probably in much larger doses, because they couldn’t produce very much because their infrastructure was so bad,” he said.
President Donald Trump said in a Jan. 3 news conference that oil companies will play a role in his administration’s plan to ‘run’ Venezuela.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves of any country worldwide, but the oil produced is of poor quality by U.S. standards.
Those reserves have been almost completely off limits to American oil giants since Venezuela placed them in the hands of a state-run company called Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., or PDVSA, in the mid-1970s.
The exception is Chevron, which is allowed to operate through a joint venture with PDVSA.
The Trump administration canceled Chevron’s license to operate in Venezuela early in 2025, then reneged in July and granted the company a limited license.
Trump has not spelled out the rationale behind his claim that Venezuela stole U.S. oil. In 2007, Maduro’s socialist predecessor Hugo Chávez seized oil fields privately owned by foreign companies, including some belonging to American companies like Exxon and ConocoPhilips.
Politico reported in mid-December that the Trump administration had reached out to those companies about reopening business in Venezuela.