Trump Optimistic on Bringing Back Venezuela Oil Operations in Under 18 Months

The U.S. oil industry could get new operations in Venezuela “up and running” in less than 18 months in the wake of leader Nicolás Maduro’s capture, U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday.

“I think we can do it in less time than that, but it’ll be a lot of money,” Trump told NBC News in an interview. “A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent, and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue.”

Venezuela’s oil sector holds the world’s largest proven reserves at over 300 billion barrels, nearly one-fifth of the global total. Production has fallen, however—the result of years of mismanagement under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez. This has been worsened by underinvestment, U.S. sanctions, and aging infrastructure with poor maintenance.

Trump declined to detail the exact costs for repairing and upgrading Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.

“It’ll be a very substantial amount of money will be spent” by the oil firms, he said. “But they’ll do very well. And the country will do well.”

In the 1970s, the Venezuelan government nationalized energy assets such as those owned by Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips. Nationalizations in 2006 and 2007 under Chávez forced Exxon and Conoco to leave the country entirely. Chevron accepted less favorable terms and stayed with a sanctions waiver.

Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods recently expressed caution about re-entering the Venezuelan market.

“We’ve been expropriated from Venezuela two different times,” he told Bloomberg News in November, in reply to a question regarding whether Exxon would be interested in Venezuela’s oil or gas. “We’d have to see what the economics look like.”

Trump said tapping Venezuela’s oil reserves is “going to reduce oil prices.” Gas prices are already at multiyear lows, with the U.S. average retail price at $2.81 on Monday, according to AAA—the lowest since March 2021.

“Having a Venezuela that’s an oil producer is good for the United States because it keeps the price of oil down,” Trump added.

The U.S. president said his administration had not briefed oil companies prior to Saturday’s military operation to capture Maduro.

“But we’ve been talking to the concept of, ‘What if we did it?'” He said. “The oil companies were absolutely aware that we were thinking about doing something. But we didn’t tell them we were going to do it.”

Trump said it was “too soon” to reveal details about personal talks with executives at Exxon, Chevron, or ConocoPhillips, but said, “I speak to everybody.”

Trump has vowed to rebuild Venezuela, including its oil sector, as part of broader stabilization efforts after Maduro’s ouster.

“As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust, for a long period of time,” Trump said at a Jan. 3 news conference in Florida. “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”

A White House official said Energy Secretary Chris Wright will help lead the administration’s rebuilding efforts.

The Trump administration has said U.S. oil firms are ready to return almost two decades after major nationalizations.

“They want to go in so badly,” Trump told reporters Sunday.

U.S. stocks rallied following Maduro’s capture, with gains led by oil and refinery companies. Chevron shares rose 6 percent, Exxon 3 percent, ConocoPhillips 3 percent, and Occidental Petroleum 2 percent, boosting the Dow Jones Industrial Average by over 600 points.