U.S. President Donald Trump pressed top American oil executives on Friday to invest in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, but received a cautious response, with some industry leaders warning that the country remained “uninvestable” without sweeping reforms.
Speaking at the White House, Trump said his administration—not Caracas—would decide which companies could operate in Venezuela, signaling Washington’s intent to sideline the Latin American nation in exploiting its own resources.
“We’re going to be making the decision as to which oil companies are going to go in… (we’re) going to cut a deal with the companies,” Trump said. “But now you have total security. It’s a whole different Venezuela.” He added that oil firms would “deal with us directly,” underlining the U.S. government’s role in overseeing operations.
Despite Trump’s assurances, ExxonMobil Chief Executive Darren Woods expressed skepticism, noting that major reforms would be needed before companies could justify re-entering the country.
“We’ve had our assets seized there twice, so you can imagine that to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes,” Woods said. “If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela—it’s uninvestable.”
The White House meeting came less than a week after U.S. forces captured Maduro, with Trump openly framing control of Venezuela’s oil reserves as central to his strategy. The session focused on rebuilding the country’s dilapidated oil infrastructure and boosting production by millions of barrels per day.
Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright attended alongside executives from Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Americas, and Repsol. While some firms appeared more open to investment than ExxonMobil, analysts cautioned that the plan faces significant economic and strategic hurdles.
“There’s lots of talk about the size of the reserves—300 billion barrels of proved reserves—but what’s often missing is how realistic it is for those to be economically extracted,” said Rich Collett-White, an energy analyst at Carbon Tracker. Analysts cited outdated infrastructure, heavy crude that is costly to extract, political instability, and growing investor unease in a global energy transition away from fossil fuels.
Trump has promoted Venezuela as a major opportunity for U.S. firms, claiming on his Truth Social platform that “at least 100 billion dollars will be invested by BIG OIL.” Energy Secretary Wright has added that Washington would control Venezuela’s oil industry “indefinitely.”
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez said her government remains in charge, with state oil company PDVSA confirming only that it was negotiating with U.S. authorities. Currently, Chevron is the only American company licensed to operate in Venezuela; ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips exited in 2007 after refusing former President Hugo Chávez’s demands to cede majority control.
Trump also said on social media that he had canceled a second wave of strikes on Venezuela due to “cooperation” from the country.
Sanctioned by Washington since 2019, Venezuela holds roughly a fifth of the world’s oil reserves but produced only about 1% of global crude in 2024, according to OPEC, hampered by years of underinvestment, sanctions, and mismanagement. Trump views the country’s reserves as a potential windfall to further lower U.S. domestic fuel prices.
Friday’s meeting, however, highlighted the difficulties in convincing major oil companies to commit to Venezuela amid lingering uncertainty about governance and the long-term security of investments in a post-Maduro era.
