President Donald Trump confirmed the startling attacks in Venezuela and the arrest of leader Nicolás Maduro were largely about its vast oil reserves—not just drugs and immigration—arguing that American oil companies will rebuild the Venezuelan crude industry to compensate the U.S. financially and enrich the Venezuelan people.
“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,” Trump said during a press conference on Saturday.
“We’re going to have a presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil,” Trump said. “We’re going to be taking a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground.”
Although smaller gains could come more quickly, energy analysts emphasize it will take years—likely close to a decade—to truly rebuild the Venezuelan oil sector and dramatically boost exports, ensuring U.S. ensnarement in Venezuela for a long time.
While scant on details, Trump said Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is in charge for now, but that “she really doesn’t have a choice” and must follow the White House’s orders until fair elections or a transition of power is implemented. “We’re not afraid of boots on the ground.”
Home to the world’s largest proven oil reserves but less than 1% of global oil production, Venezuela is arguably the planet’s biggest underachiever from a petroleum extraction perspective. Once a major player churning out nearly 4 million barrels of oil daily, Venezuela’s volumes have plunged from 3.2 million barrels daily in 2000 down to about 960,000 barrels today under the authoritarian socialist regimes of Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, from a combination of mismanagement, underinvestment, and escalating U.S. sanctions.
“We’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be,” Trump said. “It’s actually a minor flow now for what they have.”
Trump has repeatedly said he wanted the Venezuelan oil back that was expropriated from American operators during George W. Bush’s second term. During his press conference, he called it the “largest theft of property in the history of our country.”
“Massive oil infrastructure was taken like we were babies, and we didn’t do anything about it,” Trump said.
Ripple effects
Trump said the U.S. has now “superseded” the Monroe Doctrine, noting that some now call it the “Donroe” doctrine. “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”
Citing national security concerns over drug trafficking, since the fall, the U.S. has bombed many boats from Venezuela—under questionable legal authority—killing more than 100 people thus far, according to the U.S. military. In December, the U.S. escalated the conflict by seizing sanctioned oil tankers and implementing a partial oil embargo around Venezuela.
“The embargo on all Venezuelan oil remains in full effect. The American armada remains poised and in position,” Trump said.
While more than 80% of Venezuela’s exported oil goes to China—Trump said the U.S. will allow the legal sale of Venezuelan oil to China and others—almost 15% does go to the U.S. through a special license Chevron holds to operate in Venezuela.
“Chevron remains focused on the safety and wellbeing of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets. We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations,” a Chevron spokesperson said Saturday, declining further comment for now.
In a Washington, D.C. conference in November, Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth said the geopolitical circumstances are difficult, but Venezuela’s potential is worth the effort. “The kinds of swings that you see in places like Venezuela are challenging. But we play a long game. Venezuela is blessed with a lot of geologic resource and bounty. And we are committed to the people of the country and would like to be there as part of rebuilding Venezuela’s economy in time when circumstances change.”
Many Democratic members of Congress sharply criticized Trump for making an illegal attack on Venezuela and lying about it.
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., said Trump acted Illegally, outside of U.S. interests, and seemingly with no plan going forward. He told CNN that the White House lied to Congress about forcing regime change, putting boots on the ground, and about drugs coming to the U.S. from Venezuela—or the lack thereof.
“Maybe this is all about oil and he’s trying to steal their oil,” Moulton said, but that he doesn’t know for sure because Trump lies about everything.
When asked how the attacks in Venezuela mesh with “America First” policies, Trump said: “We want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. We want to surround ourselves with stability. We want to surround ourselves with energy, We have tremendous energy in that country. It’s very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves; we need it for the world.”
