U.S. oil companies are trying to determine their next moves in the wake of the weekend overthrow of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Hours after Maduro was captured by U.S. armed forces, President Trump remarked that “our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world,” will set up operations in the Latin American country, with the goal of fixing the “badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure.”
According to a yahoo!finance report, the cost of rebuilding the country’s oil infrastructure, after years of neglect, fires, and theft, could reach the $100 billion mark and take upwards of a decade to complete.
Other infrastructure is in similar unstable condition, according to the news site: “At Venezuela’s oil ports, the equipment is in such poor shape that it takes five days to fully load supertankers that deliver crude to China.”
Some seven years ago, it only took one day.
In a statement, the American Petroleum Institute said it was “closely watching developments involving Venezuela, including the potential implications for global energy markets.”
Various reports note that Venezuela’s oil production has been off for years, dropping from a peak of 3.5 billion barrels per day in 1999 to some 800,000 barrels per day last year.
Notes Fortune magazine: “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.”
Chevron is currently the only major U.S oil company in Venezuela. The company has said that for now it is focused on “the safety and wellbeing of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets.”
Executives with other oil companies, reports the Wall Street Journal, “now must gauge the stability of the country’s industry.”
January 6, 2026
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
