After US forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in early January 2026, President Donald Trump has been urging big oil companies to invest about $100 billion in fixing Venezuela’s collapsed oil industry.
What Trump is proposing
On 9 January, President Trump held a meeting at the White House with executives from the world’s largest oil firms and told them he wants them to invest roughly $100 billion of their own money to restore Venezuela’s ageing oil infrastructure. He stressed that this money would not come from US taxpayers, but from the companies themselves. Trump also promised that the US would offer total safety and security for their operations, saying they would work with Washington rather than directly with Venezuela.
Trump’s argument is that boosting Venezuelan oil production would help keep global energy prices down and counter the influence of Russia and China in the region.
How the oil bosses responded
Executives were polite but cautious. Leaders like the head of ExxonMobil said that right now Venezuela is “uninvestable” without major legal and commercial changes and real guarantees that their money won’t be lost again—especially given past experiences in the country.
What happened next
Instead of agreeing on the spot to spend billions, the companies have only agreed to send technical teams to Venezuela to assess how bad the damage is. There was no firm commitment to hand over cash yet.
Trump also made clear that if the big oil firms don’t take up his offer, there are others waiting who might.
In simple terms:
Trump is saying “Maduro’s gone, the oil’s in the ground, and we’ll protect you—now invest $100 billion to get it flowing again.”
Oil companies are saying “We’re interested, but we’ve been burned before. Unless the rules change and we’re certain we won’t lose our money again, we’ll hold off—though we’ll send people to take a look.”