President Presses US Oil to Invest $100B in Venezuela

During a partially-televised Cabinet meeting with oil executives, President Trump pressed executives from nearly two dozen oil companies on Friday to invest $100 million in Venezuela. He wants them to drill into one of the world’s largest oil bounties. Most of those executives stopped short of making public pledges to invest quickly.

President Trump wants to get Russia, China, and Iran out of Venezuela. However, communist nations will, on a whim, confiscate an investment.

“We’ve had our assets seized there twice,” Woods said. “You can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we’ve historically seen here and what is currently the state.”

As for Chevron, Vice Chairman Mark Nelson thanked Trump for his leadership and for keeping American energy at the top of his agenda. He said the company has brought its production in Venezuela to 240,000 barrels a day at its four joint ventures and can boost output relatively quickly.

Go Deeper

Present were executives from Chevron—the only U.S. oil company active there—Exxon Mobil, Conoco, Phillips, and other companies signaled a willingness to examine new prospects. However, they indicated they need security guarantees and an overhaul of Venezuela’s legal and commercial framework to consider diving in.

While President Trump can give security guarantees, he can’t promise that the laws and stability will be secure.

It will take tens of billions of dollars to restore the country’s oil to its former glory, and they’d rather do it under a democratic government there. Ricardo Hausmann, a former Venezuelan planning minister, said the Trump team wants the oil recovery before a transition. They would prefer the reverse.

“There’s a reason why there’s no profit motive in government,” Hausmann told Fortune, referring to the U.S. controlling the Venezuelan oil market. “Profit motive in government is what we call corruption.”

They also need human capital, but many Venezuelans won’t return under this government.

The Trump administration is working on a plan to exert some control over Venezuela’s state-run oil giant, Petróleos de Venezuela, or PdVSA, including acquiring and marketing the bulk of its oil production, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. The president has raised the prospect of lowering oil prices to $50 a barrel—a level that would be too low for oil companies to profitably invest in Venezuela.

“We have the ability and the capability of our assets to process Venezuelan crude and the people of Marathon Petroleum stand ready to do so,” said Maryann Mannen, the company’s CEO.

Unfortunately, the next US Democrat government will destroy all of it. They are still into climate change extremism.

The Death Knell to Oil and Profit Rang with Chavez

Hausman told Fortune that Chavez rang the death knell for oil years ago. He seized and nationalized the assets of U.S. oil companies like ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil, which then left the country. Today, only Chevron, under a special U.S. license, continues to do business in Venezuela.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado previously expressed intent to reform these hydrocarbon laws to increase foreign investment by getting rid of ownership restrictions. But Trump seems unlikely to give power to Venezuela’s popular political figures. He said Machado lacked the support necessary to lead the country, despite evidence of widespread backing for her and Edmundo González, who ran against Maduro in the 2024 election. Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, is Venezuela’s interim leader.

Venezuela had been opposed to oil since 1943.

Hausman wants investments in many other things, and he pointed out tourism as a possibility. Lots of luck with that one.