U.S. President Donald Trump, joined by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, speaks during an event in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, October 2025. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The Trump administration is filling in the blanks on how it will wield influence over the interim Venezuelan government. It starts with controlling the sale of its oil supplies.
At a Goldman Sachs $GS energy conference on Wednesday morning, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the U.S. will be taking over the sale of Venezuelan crude "indefinitely."
"We're going to market the crude coming out of Venezuela, first this backed up stored oil, and then indefinitely, going forward, we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace," Wright said.
He added that he's "working directly in cooperation" with Venezuelan officials to achieve the administration's goals in the country, after the U.S. captured its leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday.
"As we make progress with the government, we'll enable the importing of parts and equipment and services to kind of prevent the industry from collapsing, stabilize the production, and then as quickly as possible, start to see it growing again," Wright said. He acknowledged it will cost "tens of billions of dollars" to get the ailing Venezuelan oil sector up and running again. The U.S. raid .
Wright is partnering with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to cajole U.S. oil companies to re-establish operations in Venezuela. He said the administration intends to revitalize the Venezuelan oil sector, which has long been plagued with sanctions, mismanagement, corruption, and neglect that has crippled oil installations. Daily Venezuelan oil output hovers at around one million barrels per day.
The Department of Energy later released a statement sketching out how the U.S. will control Venezuelan oil sales. It said the Trump administration has started listing Venezuelan crude for sale. The proceeds will be deposited in "U.S. controlled accounts" in globally recognized banks and put to use "for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people."
With new leader and former oil minister Delcy Rodríguez assuming power in Caracas, the U.S. is starting to dictate Venezuela's future with uncertain consequences ahead. The pronouncement that the U.S. will control Venezuela's decrepit oil industry for the foreseeable future comes less than a day after President Donald Trump said the country's "interim authorities" had agreed to hand over 30 to 50 million barrels of oil to be sold at current trading prices. It amounts to over a month of Venezuela's oil output.
“This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” he said in a social media post. The proceeds will total roughly $3 billion.
The interim Venezuelan government hasn't publicly commented on Trump's announcement.
A White House official told Quartz that oil executives are set to meet with Trump at the White House on Friday. CNN reported that executives from Chevron $CVX, ExxonMobile, and ConocoPhillips $COP are expected to be in attendance.
Chevron is the only U.S. oil company still operating in Venezuela under a special license granting it the ability to pump and sell Venezuelan crude. In contrast, ExxonMobile and ConocoPhillips exited the country two decades ago after the Venezuelan government seized their assets. Up to now, all have held off on pledging to either expand or re-enter the country, given the enormous uncertainty in its future.
