Trump presses reluctant oil executives to pour billions into Venezuela
US President Donald Trump has told several of the world’s major oil companies that he guarantees “total safety” in Venezuela, urging them to invest $100 billion in the South American nation’s oil industry.
Trump has openly acknowledged that Venezuela’s oil was a key priority behind the US military strike on Caracas and the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife on January 3.
During a meeting with oil company executives at the White House on Friday, Trump said the United States stands to benefit from lower energy prices.
The president insisted that the investment would come from private oil companies rather than the federal government.
“The plan is for them to spend — meaning our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100 billion of their money, not the government’s money,” he said.
“We’re going to be making the decision as to which oil companies are going to go in,” Trump added.
Earlier in the week, he had suggested that US taxpayers might ultimately fund investments in Venezuela’s oil sector.
In brief comments, some oil executives expressed conditional interest in investing in Venezuela’s oil infrastructure if the US government provides sufficient assurances. However, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said the company currently views Venezuela as “uninvestable.”
Woods added that no major financial commitments were expected in the near term.
Many analysts have questioned whether oil giants will move as quickly or as aggressively as Trump has suggested.
CNN reported last week that despite Trump’s repeated claims that US oil companies are eager to access Venezuela’s vast energy reserves, major American firms show little appetite for returning to the country.
Citing industry executives, the network said conditions on the ground make Trump’s ambition to control Venezuela’s oil both economically risky and politically fraught.
The reluctance, analysts say, underscores the gap between Washington’s coercive foreign policy approach and the hard constraints imposed by markets, legal frameworks, and investment risk.
Years of sanctions, financial isolation, and underinvestment, much of it driven by US-led pressure, have left Venezuela’s oil sector severely weakened.
International law experts have repeatedly stressed that no external actor has a legal claim to a country’s natural resources, noting that Venezuela’s oil belongs solely to its people.
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