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By Hugh Cameron
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President Donald Trump has confirmed he spoke with oil companies "before and after" the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said he had spoken to "all" of the oil firms before the raid took place, without specifying what these conversations involved.
"They want to go in. And they’re going to do a great job for the people of Venezuela. And they’re going to represent us well," he added.
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Newsweek contacted the White House via email outside of regular hours for comment.
Why It Matters
While the capture of Maduro—who is scheduled to appear in federal court on Monday—has been mainly presented as an attempt to thwart his involvement in narcoterrorism, the administration has not shied away from the energy-related motivations for placing the country under U.S. control until a "safe, proper and judicious transition" can take place.
However, the raid has drawn criticism on international legal grounds, while leaving other countries in Latin America as well as Greenland on heightened alert. At the same time, the consultation with oil firms—rather than Congress—has now attracted scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers, who believe the administration bypassed the domestic prerequisites for what some consider an act of war.
What To Know
On Sunday, Trump told reporters that U.S. oil firms "want to go in so badly," and said Venezuela would soon see "big investments" to revive its ailing energy infrastructure.
Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves on the planet but till now has been unable to fully capitalize on its natural resource endowment, due to mismanagement and underinvestment, as well as the longstanding sanctions and financial isolation of the country by the U.S. and its allies.
"We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure—the oil infrastructure—and start making money for the country," Trump said during a press conference following the operation on Saturday.
These comments led some experts to infer that oil firms were consulted prior to the operation and had already committed to revitalizing the country’s energy sector.
"My hunch is that, if President Trump said this publicly, probably there was already an agreement with the US companies," Jorge León, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy, told The Guardian on Saturday.
Chevron, the only major U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela, told NewsNation it remains "focused on the safety and well-being of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets." ConocoPhillips told the outlet that it was "monitoring developments in Venezuela and their potential implications for global energy supply and stability," but added that speculating on future business opportunities in the country would be "premature."
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In addition to oil, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Venezuela offers a range of other assets that could now be exploited.
"You have steel, you have minerals, right? All the critical minerals. They have a great mining history that’s gone rusty," Lutnick told reporters on Sunday. "So steel, aluminum, minerals—I mean, this was once, upon a time, one of the great economies and cultures of the world, and it was destroyed. Now President Trump is going to fix it and bring it back."
Some American business leaders are already planning to scout out the potential investment prospects in Venezuela following Maduro’s removal. In an interview with Business Insider, Charles Myers, chairman of Signum Global Advisors, said a group of 20 U.S. investors plan to travel to the country in March to explore these opportunities.
But Trump’s confirmation that he spoke with oil companies "before and after" the operation has drawn sharp criticism from lawmakers within the U.S.
"I can’t begin to tell you how insane this is. He did not inform Congress but he’s saying he informed the oil companies," political analyst and Democratic Congressional candidate Fred Wellman posted to X.
What People Are Saying
President Trump, during a press conference on Saturday, said: "As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could have taken place."
"We’re going to have a presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil because we have to—we’re sending our expertise in. You may need something, not very much, but no, we’re going to be extracting a tremendous amount of wealth from the ground," he later added. "That wealth will go to the people of Venezuela, to Venezuelans living abroad, and also to the United States in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused to us by that country."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during an interview with NBC News on Sunday, said: "We don't need Venezuela's oil. We have plenty of oil in the United States. What we're not going to allow is for the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States. You have to understand: why does China need their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They're not even in this continent. This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live. And we're not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operations for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States, simple as that."
Rubrick Biegon, professor of international relations at the University of Kent, told Newsweek: "Traditionally, U.S. policymakers have sought to frame interventions of this kind in relation to national security. There has been some of that in this case through the depiction of Maduro as a ‘narco-terrorist.’ And yet Trump and others have been open about the importance of Venezuela’s oil resources as a motivating factor for U.S. policy toward the country. This kind of frank acknowledgment is typically reserved for policy debate. It is not normally geared toward the wider public."
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen told CBS News on Sunday: "This, from the beginning, has been about getting rid of Maduro, grabbing Venezuela's oil for American oil companies and Trump's billionaire buddies. That's what this is about. That's why Donald Trump spent so much time yesterday talking about oil."
Democratic Representative Yassamin Ansari posted to X: "The oil companies were informed about an act of war before it happened, Congress was not. That, my friends, is what an authoritarian regime run by oligarchs looks like."
What Happens Next
Maduro is scheduled to appear at Manhattan's federal court on Monday on multiple drug and weapons charges.
Trump has said the U.S. will remain "in charge" of Venezuela as it works to establish a cooperative interim authority capable of governing the country.
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