Trump promises US companies to return to Caracas as Washington regains control of Venezuelan oil
After a military operation that resulted in the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, his counterpart Donald Trump said he would allow US oil companies to return to Caracas to exploit their crude reserves, the world’s largest.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, exceeding 303,211 billion barrels, according to its Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Venezuela is ahead of Saudi Arabia (267.200 billion barrels) and Iran (208.6 billion), however, production is very low, at around 1 million barrels per day, compared with about 3.5 million barrels per day when Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999.
Sanctions imposed by Trump in 2019 during his first term contributed to a historic drop of 350,000 bpd the following year.
Due to the restrictions, the number of Venezuelan oil importers has decreased.
China imports an estimated 80% of it through Malaysia, while Cuba imports 5% under agreements between the two countries.
To circumvent the ban, Caracas relies on tankers that use various tricks, such as sailing under fake flags or on imaginary routes.
One such stealth tanker, the Skipper, which was intercepted by the US Navy as part of the oil embargo on Venezuela last month, was carrying more than 1 million barrels of Venezuelan oil believed to be bound for Cuba.
To avoid US sanctions, customers are paying in cryptocurrencies, meanwhile, US company Chevron produces a limited portion of Venezuelan oil.
The company operates under a special license issued by Washington that allows it to maintain its partnership with Venezuela’s national oil company and export part of its production, particularly to the US market.
However, it’s no longer allowed to transfer money to the state, and therefore pays taxes and other fees in crude oil.
Other US companies that existed in the early 2000s, such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, left Venezuela in 2007, rejecting Chavez’s terms, which stipulated that the state would become the largest shareholder of all companies operating in the country.
In his remarks on Saturday, Trump stressed the need to be surrounded by safe and stable countries and the importance of owning energy.
“There is a lot of money being extracted from the ground,” he said, stressing that the United States will recover everything it has spent”.
Trump is also seeking to keep “Chinese actors out of the Americas,” including depriving China of its influence over the Panama Canal, through which much of Venezuela’s oil passes.
But investment currently doesn’t look attractive, as an abundance of supply is putting pressure on oil prices, which have fallen in 2025 despite factors that should have led to their rise, such as Trump’s tariff war and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
With the market oversupplied, analysts believe that instability in Venezuela will have a limited impact on oil prices, with only a slight increase likely this week.
