President Trump says US oil companies can enter Venezuela to tap reserves after a military operation seized leader Nicolas Maduro, but sanctions remain
PALM BEACH: President Donald Trump announced he would allow American oil companies to operate in Venezuela following a US military operation that seized the country’s leader Nicolas Maduro.
“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 told a press conference on Saturday.
He stated that the embargo on all Venezuelan oil remains in full effect.
The announcement follows a weeks-long military pressure campaign against Venezuela, during which US forces seized at least two oil tankers subject to US sanctions.
Trump issued a warning to other political and military figures in Venezuela, stating that “what happened to Maduro can happen to them.”
Venezuela has been under US oil sanctions since 2019 and currently produces about one million barrels of crude per day.
Most of this oil is sold on the black market at steep discounts.
Trump claims Caracas uses oil revenue to finance what he described as drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnapping.
