The US president also said he would meet with oil executives at the White House on Friday to discuss Venezuela’s oil industry.
US President Donald Trump said he had halted a second wave of attacks on Venezuela with the “cooperation” of the South American nation.
The president said on Friday that Venezuela was releasing a number of political prisoners as a sign of its “pursuit of peace” following the U.S. military’s abduction of President Nicolas Maduro last week.
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“This is a very important and wise gesture. The United States and Venezuela work well together, especially as it relates to rebuilding our oil and gas infrastructure bigger, better and more modern,” President Trump said on Truth Social.
“Thanks to this cooperation, I have canceled the previously expected second wave of attacks, which will likely not be necessary, but all vessels will remain in place for safety and security purposes,” his post added.
President Trump’s comments came hours after he suggested in an interview on Fox News’ Hannity show that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Colina Machado would be coming to Washington next week, having previously dismissed the idea of working with her, saying “she is not supported or respected in the country.”
But the Republican president told the New York Times on Wednesday that the United States “works very well” with the Venezuelan government, led by acting interim president Delcy Rodriguez.
During the Fox interview, President Trump said he met with oil company executives at the White House on Friday and that oil companies would spend at least $100 billion on Venezuela, a statement he repeated in his “Truth Social” post.
“At least $100 billion will be invested by BIG OIL. I will be meeting with all of them today at the White House,” Trump wrote on his social media platforms ahead of the meeting, where he was expected to persuade oil leaders to support his plan in Venezuela.
The Trump administration has repeatedly said it is running Venezuela, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright asserted Wednesday that Washington will control Venezuela’s oil industry “indefinitely.”
Rodríguez, who represented President Maduro, said only that the Maduro government remained in charge and that the state oil company was negotiating with the United States about oil sales.
US broadcaster NBC News reported that the heads of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips are scheduled to attend a meeting at the White House.
“Obviously this is just a meeting to discuss the tremendous opportunities that are in front of these oil companies right now,” President Trump’s press secretary, Caroline Leavitt, told reporters Wednesday.
Chevron is currently the only U.S. company licensed to operate in Venezuela. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips left the country in 2007, rejecting then-President Hugo Chávez’s request to transfer a majority stake in their local operations to the government.
Venezuela, which has been under U.S. government sanctions since 2019, has about a fifth of the world’s oil reserves and was once a major crude oil supplier to the United States.
But years of underinvestment, sanctions and embargoes have hampered production, leaving it at about 1% of total global oil production in 2024, OPEC said.
President Trump sees the country’s vast oil reserves as a windfall in his fight to further lower fuel prices in the United States, a key political challenge.
But convincing U.S. oil giants to invest in Venezuela could face tough challenges due to uncertainties surrounding post-Maduro governance, security and the huge costs of restoring production facilities.
