On December 21, 2025, an oil refinery in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela.Photo: Matthias Delacroix/AP
Hours after Nicolas Maduro was captured by U.S. special forces in Venezuela and charged with drugs, weapons and “narco-terrorism,” Donald Trump spoke extensively about his plans for something entirely different: oil.
Venezuela’s oil reserves, said to be the world’s largest, will be tapped by a string of powerful U.S. oil companies, most of which have not operated in the country for decades, the U.S. president said.
“The oil companies are going to step in and rebuild their system,” Trump said on Sunday, describing the nationalization of Venezuela’s oil as the “greatest theft in U.S. history.” “They took our oil,” he declared.
Related: Trump said U.S. companies would invest billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil production. Experts aren’t so sure
U.S. oil majors have remained largely silent on Trump’s claims that they will flood Venezuela and invest billions of dollars in the process. Analysts are skeptical of the president’s vision to significantly increase the country’s oil production within 18 months. This is far from the first time the industry has been at the center of a global conflict.
While Trump has expressed a dream for U.S. companies to take over Venezuela’s oil, such efforts to oust dictators from petro-states have historically not guaranteed a boom in oil production, the data shows.
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While oil majors enjoyed the benefits of Venezuelan oil in the late 1990s, production began to decline by the mid-2000s as then-President Hugo Chávez tightened government control over the industry and expelled many foreign oil companies.
The United States imposed sanctions on Venezuelan oil from 2005 to 2022. After Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States narrowly lifted the sanctions and allowed Chevron to resume oil production in the country. Chevron is the only U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela.
While Trump is bullish on the opportunities presented by the country’s oil, some analysts question whether major oil companies will quickly re-enter Venezuela and invest heavily in operations there if the country continues to face political instability.
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After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the fall of Saddam Hussein, it took several years for the Middle Eastern country’s oil production to rebound. In 2009, then-Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki invited international oil companies to purchase licenses, and international oil companies began to resume oil production in the country.
By 2024, Iraq will become the second-largest crude oil producer in the OPEC oil cartel, after Saudi Arabia. Oil production has boosted the country’s economy, although water shortages and ongoing political instability have led major oil companies to start scaling back production in the country.
