Overview
- The White House confirmed Nicolás Maduro is in U.S. custody, and President Trump said the U.S. will temporarily run Venezuela and deploy American oil companies to rebuild infrastructure, with costs repaid from future oil revenues.
- Major U.S. oil firms have not endorsed the plan publicly; Chevron, the only U.S. operator still in Venezuela, offered a cautious statement, while ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips did not comment as analysts flagged security, contract and sanctions hurdles.
- Venezuela holds about 303 billion barrels of proven reserves, mostly ultra‑heavy Orinoco crude that needs diluents and upgrading, and current output is roughly 1.1 million barrels per day versus past peaks above 3 million.
- Energy analysts expect little immediate impact on global prices given an oversupplied market and Venezuela’s small share of output, though tanker movements have been disrupted by a U.S. blockade and exports have slowed.
- Rebuilding production is widely assessed as a multi‑year effort costing tens to over a hundred billion dollars, with estimates such as Rystad’s $110 billion to reach 2 million barrels per day by the early 2030s.