U.S. President Donald Trump holds a press conference as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth looks at him following a U.S. strike on Venezuela where President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured, from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., January 3, 2026.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Saturday said U.S. oil companies will invest billions of dollars in Venezuela’s energy sector after the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro.
“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,” Trump said in a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
“Let’s start making money for the country,” Trump said.
U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a large-scale attack on the South American nation overnight. They have been indicted on drug-trafficking charges in the Southern District of New York.
Trump said the U.S. will “run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.” The president said the U.S. will temporarily run Venezuela “with a group,” without providing details.
A crude oil tanker is anchored on Lake Maracaibo near Maracaibo, Zulia state, Venezuela, on December 18, 2025.
Alejandro Paredes | Afp | Getty Images
The overthrow of Maduro comes after a months-long U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean. Trump said the embargo he imposed on Venezuelan oil “remains in full effect.”
The president said oil companies will pay directly for the cost of rebuilding Venezuela’s crude infrastructure. “They will be reimbursed for what they’re doing,” Trump said.
“We’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be,” he said. “We’ll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries, many of whom are using it now, but I would say many more will come,” he said.
Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, sits on the largest oil reserves in the world. It nationalized the industry in 1976, seizing assets from Exxon Mobil, Shell and Chevron, said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.
A motorcycle rider passes in front of an oil-themed mural in Caracas, Venezuela on September 01, 2022.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Venezuela’s production peaked at 3.5 million barrels per day in the late 1990s, but has declined significantly since then, said Matt Smith, oil analyst at Kpler. The country’s current production stands at around 800,000 barrels per day, according to Kpler data. For the week of Dec. 26, the U.S. produced around 13.8 million barrels per day.
China and Russia have a presence in Venezuela’s oil sector, Lipow said. The Maduro regime in November approved a 15-year extension of joint ventures with Russian-linked companies operating fields in Venezuela, the analyst said.
