Trump says U.S. oil companies will invest billions in Venezuela
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.
Trump said oil companies will pay directly for the cost of rebuilding Venezuela’s crude infrastructure. “They will be reimbursed for what they’re doing,” he said.
“We’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be,” the president 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 is a founding member of OPEC and sits on the largest oil reserves in the world.
