Trump administration outlines plan to assume control of Venezuela’s oil sales

After the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, Trump administration officials outlined a plan to effectively assume control of selling oil from Venezuela indefinitely, the New York Times reported. Venezuela’s oil industry dates to a 1914 commercial well near Lake Maracaibo and has undergone major shifts, including two waves of nationalization.

In 1975 the government nationalized the petroleum industry and in 1976 the state company Petróleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, took over extraction and production. Under Hugo Chávez, elected in 1998, the government increasingly used PDVSA resources for social programs, leading to a 2002 strike that nearly halted production and a purge of about 18,000 company employees.

In 2007 the government demanded companies reduce stakes without compensation; ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil left and sued, and tribunals have since awarded nearly $11 billion to ConocoPhillips and $2.5 billion to Exxon Mobil, the article said. The industry later suffered a cash-flow crisis after the 2014 price crash, U.S.

sanctions began in 2017, and tensions escalated in 2025 with a U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean that some Trump officials said was meant to drive Mr. Maduro from power. Mr. Trump has said U.S.

Key Topics

World, Venezuelan Oil, Lake Maracaibo, Pdvsa, Nicolás Maduro, Donald Trump