Who controls Venezuela’s oil? It’s complicated

After capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolàs Maduro on the weekend, U.S. Chair Donald ruff predicted U.S. Oil colour companies would swoop up into republic of venezuela, spend billions and earn huge profits for both themselves and the Venezuelan people. He then said they would “take back the oil, frankly, we should’ve taken back a long time ago.”

Venezuela has more proven oil reserves than any other country, but the question of who has the right to pump and profit from it is an open question — and comes with serious baggage.

The country nationalized its oil industry decades ago. In 2007, it expropriated most U.S. Oil assets and kicked two of the three companies out of the country.

Legal fights are still ongoing over the billions of dollars those companies say Venezuela owes them in compensation. Under the circumstances, it’s not clear when or how quickly they would rush back in.

Here’s a look at what happened.

In 1999, Hugo Chavez became president of Venezuela. The self-described Marxist and anti-imperialist promised to reduce U.S. Influence in the country.

At the time, Venezuela was producing huge amounts of oil and reaping profits to match. But a significant amount of it was controlled by three U.S. Companies: ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Chevron.

In 2007, Chavez dramatically expanded the nationalization of the oil industry. He forced those companies, as well as companies from other countries, to transfer operational control of their businesses to the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PVDSA), and accept minority stakes, effectively seizing most of their assets.

After that, Venezuela owned as much as 83 per cent of the projects concentrated in the Orinoco River Basin, one of the richest and most extensively explored oil fields in the world.

ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil failed to reach agreements with the Venezuelan government, however. By the fall, they had left the country and ConocoPhillips said it had written off its $4.5 billion dollar investment.

Chevron stayed. Although Venezuela’s oil industry is subject to strict U.S. Sanctions, Chevron is allowed to pump oil and export it under a special licence.

The move, the biggest seizure of private property in the country since Chavez took power, set off a fight for compensation that continues to this day.

ExxonMobil argued it was owed $10 billion for the seizure of its property. It made its case at a World Bank body called the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

In 2014, the ICSID ruled that Venezuela should pay ExxonMobil $1.6 billion. The amount was subsequently disputed and ExxonMobil is still seeking payment.

In a separate case before the ICSID, ConocoPhillips was awarded $8.5 billion. Venezuela appealed but was unsuccessful, with an international arbitration court upholding the decision in January 2025. However, Venezuela has not paid any of the money and ConocoPhillips says it will continue to attempt to collect.

Analysts estimate that international courts have ordered Venezuela to pay $60 billion for various claims against it.

Trump’s weekend proclamation made it sound simple. Oil companies would re-enter the country, fix the neglected, ailing infrastructure and the industry would soon be back to the way it was in the early 2000s, when Venezuela was one of the top global exporters of oil.

But it’s probably more complicated than that. Venezuela’s oil infrastructure degraded badly under Chavez and Maduro. It’s estimated it could take $100 billion or more and a decade to fix it.

‘Oil is central’ to the U.S.’s actions in Venezuela: former Chile ambassador

U.S. Companies will have to decide whether they feel it’s a safe investment.

Chevron, which currently has 3,000 employees in Venezuela, says it’s focused for now on keeping them safe. It hasn’t said anything about expansion.

ConocoPhillips said it would be premature to speculate on future investments.

“We’ve been expropriated from Venezuela two different times,” ExxonMobil’s CEO Darren Woods told Bloomberg in November. €œWe have our history there.”

Circumstances are now different, of course. Trump said the U.S. €œruns” Venezuela, and Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff, said “we are in charge.” Miller elaborated yesterday, saying, “We have a complete embargo on all of their oil and their ability to do commerce. So for them to do commerce, they need our permission.”

Miller’s comments suggest that decisions about Venezuela’s oil industry are no longer in the hands of Venezuela.

That was echoed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said adversaries of the U.S. Will be kept out, despite the fact that China is currently Venezuela’s biggest oil customer. €œWhy does China need their oil, why does Rus­sia need their oil, why does Iran need their oil?” Rubio told NBC’s Meet the Press.

Senior Producer

---

---