U.S. President Donald Trump holds a press convention as Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth appears to be like at him following a U.S. strike on Venezuela the place President Nicolas Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, had been captured, from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Seaside, Florida, U.S., January 3, 2026.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Saturday mentioned U.S. oil firms will make investments billions of {dollars} in Venezuela’s power sector after the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro.
“We will have our very giant United States oil firms — the largest anyplace on the planet — go in, spend billions of {dollars}, repair the badly damaged infrastructure, the oil infrastructure,” Trump mentioned in a press convention from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Seaside, Florida.
“Let’s begin earning money for the nation,” Trump mentioned.
U.S. forces captured Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, in a large-scale assault on the South American nation in a single day. They have been indicted on drug-trafficking expenses within the Southern District of New York.
Trump mentioned the U.S. will “run the nation till such time as we are able to do a protected, correct and even handed transition.” The president mentioned the U.S. will briefly run Venezuela “with a bunch,” with out offering particulars.
A crude oil tanker is anchored on Lake Maracaibo close to Maracaibo, Zulia state, Venezuela, on December 18, 2025.
Alejandro Paredes | Afp | Getty Photos
The overthrow of Maduro comes after a months-long U.S. army buildup within the Caribbean. Trump mentioned the embargo he imposed on Venezuelan oil “stays in full impact.”
The president mentioned oil firms can pay immediately for the price of rebuilding Venezuela’s crude infrastructure. “They are going to be reimbursed for what they’re doing,” Trump mentioned.
“We will get the oil flowing the way in which it needs to be,” he mentioned. “We’ll be promoting giant quantities of oil to different nations, lots of whom are utilizing it now, however I’d say many extra will come,” he mentioned.
Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, sits on the biggest oil reserves on the planet. It nationalized the trade in 1976, seizing property from Exxon Mobil, Shell and Chevron, mentioned Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.
A motorbike rider passes in entrance of an oil-themed mural in Caracas, Venezuela on September 01, 2022.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Photos
Venezuela’s manufacturing peaked at 3.5 million barrels per day within the late Nineteen Nineties, however has declined considerably since then, mentioned Matt Smith, oil analyst at Kpler. The nation’s present manufacturing stands at round 800,000 barrels per day, in keeping with Kpler knowledge. For the week of Dec. 26, the U.S. produced round 13.8 million barrels per day.
China and Russia have a presence in Venezuela’s oil sector, Lipow mentioned. The Maduro regime in November accepted a 15-year extension of joint ventures with Russian-linked firms working fields in Venezuela, the analyst mentioned.
