The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with U.S. oil company executives later this week to discuss increasing Venezuelan oil production following the abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces, Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources.
The meeting is crucial to the administration’s hopes of returning America’s top oil company to the South American country after the government took control of the U.S.-led energy business in the country nearly two decades ago, Reuters reported on Monday.
Recommended stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Four oil industry executives familiar with the matter said the three largest U.S. oil companies, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, have not yet had any discussions with the Trump administration about expelling Maduro, contradicting President Trump’s comments over the weekend that he had already met with “all” U.S. oil companies before and after Maduro’s abduction.
“To date, none of these three companies have discussed their operations in Venezuela with the White House, either before or after the removal,” one of the people said on Monday.
The upcoming meeting will be critical to the administration’s hopes of boosting oil production and exports from Venezuela, a former OPEC member that has the world’s largest reserves and can refine its crude in specially designed U.S. refineries. Achieving this goal will require years of effort and billions of dollars in investment, analysts say.
It is unclear which executives will attend the upcoming meeting or whether oil companies will attend individually or collectively.
The White House did not comment on the talks but said it believed the U.S. oil industry was ready to flow into Venezuela.
“All of our oil companies are ready and willing to make significant investments in Venezuela to rebuild the oil infrastructure destroyed by the illegitimate Maduro regime,” White House Press Secretary Taylor Rogers said in a statement.
Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
An oil industry executive told Reuters that the companies were reluctant to discuss the potential Venezuela operation with the White House in groups, citing antitrust concerns that would limit collective discussion among competitors about investment plans, timing and production levels.
Political risk, low oil prices
U.S. forces stormed the Venezuelan capital on Saturday, arresting President Maduro in the middle of the night and extraditing him to the United States on narco-terrorism charges.
Hours after Maduro’s abduction, President Trump said he expected America’s largest oil companies to spend billions of dollars to boost Venezuela’s oil production, which has fallen to about a third of its peak over the past two decades due to lack of investment and sanctions.
But industry analysts say such plans will be hampered by a lack of infrastructure as well as deep uncertainty about the country’s political future, legal framework and long-term U.S. policy.
“While the Trump administration has signaled that major U.S. oil companies could expand into Venezuela and spend billions of dollars on infrastructure, we believe that political and other risks, as well as current relatively low oil prices, may prevent this in the near term,” William Blair’s Neil Dingman said in a note.
Making any significant changes to Venezuela’s production will require significant time and millions of dollars in infrastructure, he said.
And any current investment in Venezuelan infrastructure will take place in a weakened global energy market. US crude oil prices have fallen 20% compared to last year. The price of benchmark US crude oil has not exceeded $70 per barrel since June, and has not touched $80 per barrel since June 2024.
Leading up to the U.S. housing crisis of 2008, a barrel of oil cost more than $130.
Chevron is currently the only major US company operating in Venezuela’s oil fields.
Exxon and ConocoPhillips, meanwhile, made history in the country until their projects were nationalized by former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez nearly two decades ago.
Conoco is seeking billions of dollars in compensation for acquiring three oil projects in Venezuela under Chavez’s government. Exxon became involved in a long-running arbitration case against Venezuela after the country left the country in 2007.
Meanwhile, Chevron, which exports about 150,000 barrels of oil per day from Venezuela to the U.S. Gulf Coast, has had to coordinate carefully with the Trump administration in recent years to maintain its presence in the country.
President Trump said the U.S. embargo on Venezuelan oil remains in full force.
The S&P 500 Energy Index rose to its highest since March 2025, with Exxon Mobil Corp. up 2.2% and Chevron Corp. up 5.1%.
