U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright made a historic trip to Venezuela last week to tour the country’s oil facilities and to meet with interim President Delcy Rodriguez and her aides. Standing inside Petropiar, an oil processing plant in the fossil fuel-rich Orinoco Belt that operates as a joint venture between Chevron and state oil company PDVSA, Wright promised that more than $100 million would be invested to upgrade the facility, enabling Chevron to double production within 18 months and “probably quintuple it over the next five years.” With Rodriguez standing next to him, Wright picked up a glass flask filled with thick, heavy Venezuelan crude, inspected it, and kissed it for the cameras.
That moment—and really, Wright’s entire visit—was symbolic of the approach that U.S. President Donald Trump has taken to Venezuela following the removal of Nicolas Maduro from power in a daring and brazen military raid at the start of the year. It’s all about the oil.
Speaking at a press conference the morning of Jan. 3, immediately after Maduro’s capture, Trump made clear that his focus was on controlling Venezuela and tapping its oil resources for the U.S. He mentioned the word “oil” about two dozen times in those remarks, including a pronouncement that “we’re gonna take back the oil that, frankly, we should’ve taken back a long time ago.” Trump also promised that U.S. energy companies would invest billions into Venezuela’s oil infrastructure. For many observers, it felt as if Trump made a sudden shift in justifying the attack: moving it away from counter-narcotics, reducing China’s influence, and perhaps even democracy promotion, toward what was looking primarily like an effort to control a sovereign nation’s energy resources.