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Trump admin sends tough private message to oil companies on Venezuela
Politico.com ^ | 01/03/2026 02:35 PM EST | Ben Lefebvre, Zack Colman and James Bikales

Posted on 01/03/2026 2:57:47 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

The White House has told companies they must rebuild Venezuela's crude-pumping infrastructure if they want compensation for assets seized by Caracas.

American oil companies have long hoped to recover the assets that Venezuela’s authoritarian regime ripped from them decades ago.

Now the Trump administration is offering to help them achieve that aim — with one major condition.

Administration officials have told oil executives in recent weeks that if they want compensation for their rigs, pipelines and other seized property, then they must be prepared to go back into Venezuela now and invest heavily in reviving its shattered petroleum industry, two people familiar with the administration’s outreach told POLITICO on Saturday. The outlook for Venezuela’s shattered oil infrastructure is one of the major questions following the U.S. military action that captured leader Nicolás Maduro.

But people in the industry said the administration’s message has left them still leery about the difficulty of rebuilding decayed oil fields in a country where it’s not even clear who will lead the country for the foreseeable future.

“They’re saying, ‘you gotta go in if you want to play and get reimbursed,’” said one industry official familiar with the conversations.

The offer has been on the table for the last 10 days, the person said. “But the infrastructure currently there is so dilapidated that no one at these companies can adequately assess what is needed to make it operable.”

President Donald Trump suggested in a televised address Saturday morning that he fully expects U.S. oil companies to pour big money into Venezuela.

“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 as he celebrated Maduro’s...

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: infrastructure; maduro; nlz; oil; venezuela
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1 posted on 01/03/2026 2:57:47 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

BullBLEEPico


2 posted on 01/03/2026 2:59:17 PM PST by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try. )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“...start making money for the country...”

Which country is Trump referring to, Venezuela or the U.S.?


3 posted on 01/03/2026 3:01:45 PM PST by one guy in new jersey
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

hows the oil getting pumped onto ships today?


4 posted on 01/03/2026 3:03:07 PM PST by Harpotoo (Being a socialist is a lot easier than having to WORK like the rest of US;-))
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To: one guy in new jersey

“...start making money for the country...”

Which country is Trump referring to, Venezuela or the U.S.?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

both


5 posted on 01/03/2026 3:03:44 PM PST by thinden (Buckle Up!)
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To: one guy in new jersey

Yes.

No reason it cannot be both.


6 posted on 01/03/2026 3:04:21 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Sure doesn’t seem too “private” now.


7 posted on 01/03/2026 3:04:50 PM PST by daler
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To: Harpotoo

Very low output compared to what it was prior to the commies


8 posted on 01/03/2026 3:05:30 PM PST by Robe
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To: one guy in new jersey

Venezuela...IMHO...


9 posted on 01/03/2026 3:06:03 PM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is rabble-rising Sam Adams now that we need him? Is his name Trump, now?)
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To: one guy in new jersey

Both nations. As I am sure he will invoke a tariff on the oil and its results after he pays off Vhevron, who owned most of the refineries.


10 posted on 01/03/2026 3:08:27 PM PST by electricjack (Hello I am from the govt an an I here to help you )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Citgo is one of the major stakeholders in Venezuela.

Don't know about the others. Standard Oil? BP? Shell?

11 posted on 01/03/2026 3:08:51 PM PST by Governor Dinwiddie ( O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and his mercy endures forever. — Psalm 106)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Well, the media just tipped its hand. The media are now likely to replay their old favorite and call what is happening in Venezuela "a war for oil" like they did to Jorge Bush(2000-2008) about Iraq.

12 posted on 01/03/2026 3:11:03 PM PST by ProgressingAmerica (We cannot vote our way out of these problems. The only way out is to activist our way out.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Oil companies being careful. That oil is heavy, hard to crack, the USA is about the only place that can. So, it’s costly to produce.


13 posted on 01/03/2026 3:11:56 PM PST by SaxxonWoods (Annnd....I voted for this too!)
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To: daler

What’s private? He was indicted as a criminal 20 years ago. The oil is an afterthought, and the results of doing what the SCOTUS has allowed, using federal law enforcement, are being used through cooperation with the DOJ.... As usual, the Useless Nothing UN did nothing about the indictment.


14 posted on 01/03/2026 3:12:13 PM PST by electricjack (Hello I am from the govt an an I here to help you )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Would be nice to see Venezuela returned to prosperity. My dad traveled there a lot with Pan Am in the 70s-80s. Had lots of stories about Caracas.


15 posted on 01/03/2026 3:15:00 PM PST by ponygirl (Stay gold.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Am I remembering right?? Venezuela shut down all our oil companies...


16 posted on 01/03/2026 3:15:41 PM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Sacajaweau

They confiscated and made them state run. Still used our equipment.


17 posted on 01/03/2026 3:18:48 PM PST by madison10 ("...the dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of cruelty." Psalm 74:20b [NKJV])
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To: SaxxonWoods

The oil refineries in La are already breaking down Venezuelan crude, which is thicker than stand oil/ I say give them 1 week, and the pumps will be filling Chevron Oil-owned or leased tankers in 3-4 months the pump oprice will go down even moreso, after they pay what it cost us for all the planes and equipment used to enforcee the 20 year old indictment I notice zero saidd about the wife and sun who were also arrested in the DOJ indictment that POTUS Trump put in place 20 years ago.


18 posted on 01/03/2026 3:19:14 PM PST by electricjack (Hello I am from the govt an an I here to help you )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
I seem to recall a prior case of dilapidated oil fields.


19 posted on 01/03/2026 3:21:05 PM PST by fso301
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Wonder if this has anything to do with the shutdowns of oil in California


20 posted on 01/03/2026 3:21:13 PM PST by Sacajaweau
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