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Donald Trump had a message for fossil-fuel companies on Friday: Venezuela is now “open for business” as the US president vowed the country’s resources would be extracted for the benefit of the US, oil companies – and “some” money for Venezuelans.
At a roundtable press conference at the White House with more than a dozen oil executives, including leaders from Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, the US president doubled down on claims that Nicolás Maduro’s arrest presents American oil companies with an unprecedented opportunity for extraction.
In brief remarks, oil executives – for many, the first public statements since Maduro’s capture – expressed willingness to rebuild Venezuela’s oil infrastructure with the US government’s reassurances. Venezuela’s oil reserves are reputedly the world’s largest.
History from the past two decades has shown that foreign intervention can have an impact on a country’s oil output, but with mixed and unstable results.
Trump promises oil companies ‘total safety’ in Venezuela as he urges them to invest billions
While Venezuela’s oil industry experienced a boom in the late 90s and early 2000s, the then Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, reasserted state control over the industry in the mid-2000s. In the years since, oil production in the country has fallen drastically as its infrastructure has aged and investment dried up.
“We’re going to be extracting numbers in terms of oil like few people have seen,” Trump said on Friday, emphasizing that the US stands to benefit from lower energy prices. “Venezuela is going to be very successful, and the people of the United States are going to be big beneficiaries.”
Trump threatens to intervene in Greenland ‘whether they like it or not’
Speaking at a meeting with oil and gas executives at the White House, the US president justified his comments by saying: “If we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland. And we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”
He added: “So we’re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way.”
Minneapolis mayor accuses federal authorities of ‘hiding facts’ in ICE killing
Jacob Frey, the Minnesota city’s Democratic mayor, criticized the Trump administration, speaking at a press conference two days after the Renee Nicole Good was killed in her car in a confrontation with federal officers amid protests and community scrutiny during an immigration crackdown.
Donald Trump, JD Vance and Kristi Noem, the secretary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE, swiftly accused Good of engaging in “domestic terrorism”, without providing evidence and before the official investigation was fully under way.
US forces seize another tanker in effort to control Venezuelan oil
US forces were seen in video footage that officials posted online landing on the ship’s deck as the vessel named Olina was seized in the Caribbean near Trinidad. It is the fifth interdiction of such ships in recent weeks, separately from the series of previous US operations since the start of the fall to strike suspected drug boats off the coast of Venezuela.
Doge cuts cost US taxpayers $10bn
The Trump administration “wasted” $10bn on paid leave, or paying workers to stay home, as part of the “department of government efficiency’s” assault on the federal workforce, a new analysis by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) estimates.
Washington National Opera to move out of Kennedy Center after Trump ‘takeover’
The Washington National Opera (WNO) announced on Friday it is moving its performances out of the John F Kennedy Center, in what could be one of the most significant departures from the institution since Trump took control of it.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 8 January 2026.
