US President Donald Trump has declared that American oil companies will be allowed to enter Venezuela to tap its vast crude reserves following a U.S. military operation that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.At a news conference on Saturday, Trump said major U.S. energy companies would invest billions of dollars to repair Venezuela’s damaged oil infrastructure and restart production. “We’re going to let our very large U.S. oil companies, the largest in the world, step in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” he said.According to the AP, Trump added that the US would then sell “large quantities” of Venezuelan oil to other countries.“We’re in the oil business. We’re going to sell it to them,” Trump said during the press conference. He added that oil companies would pay to rebuild Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.At the same time, he made it clear that US sanctions would remain in place. “The embargo on all Venezuelan oil remains in full force,” Trump said. Venezuela has been under US oil sanctions since 2019 and currently produces about a million barrels of crude oil per day, much of which is sold at deep discounts on the black market, according to AFP.Trump has described Venezuela’s oil sector as having been in “total collapse” for years, despite having the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves. He said the proposed “partnership” with the US would make Venezuelans “rich, independent and secure,” adding that Venezuelans living in the US would be “extremely happy” and “suffer no more,” AFP reported.The president repeated similar comments in a television interview, saying the U.S. was “very heavily involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry, without giving details.According to The Hill, Venezuela’s proven reserves are estimated at around 303 billion barrels, accounting for about 17 percent of global reserves.Trump’s comments came hours after Washington announced it had captured Maduro in an overnight military operation. Maduro and his wife were picked up from a military base and flown out of the country aboard a US warship. Trump said they were on their way to New York, where they would face criminal charges. He also said the U.S. planned to temporarily rule Venezuela until a “safe, orderly and sensible transition of power” could take place, AP reported.As part of a weeks-long military pressure campaign leading up to the raid, U.S. forces seized at least two oil tankers that Washington said were operating in violation of sanctions.According to AFP, Trump also issued a warning to other political and military figures in Venezuela, saying: “What happened to Maduro can happen to them too.” He again accused Caracas of using oil revenues to finance “drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnapping,” something the Venezuelan government has long denied, according to AFP.Trump said he personally followed the military operation in real time and praised it as “extremely successful.” He added that US forces were prepared for further action if necessary.While U.S. oil giant Chevron is already operating in Venezuela under limited sanctions relief, Trump’s comments suggest a far larger American role in the country’s energy sector once political control is restructured. How and when US oil companies would enter Venezuela and under what legal framework remains unclear.
