By: Jerome Brookshire

By any measure, the seizure of Nicolás Maduro in a predawn raid on Caracas has jolted the geopolitical energy market, but it is what is happening next that may shape the petroleum order for decades. According to multiple people familiar with the matter, President Donald Trump is preparing to meet with senior oil company executives at the White House later this week to map out a strategy for reviving Venezuela’s long-crippled oil sector — a development first reported by Reuters and confirmed by three sources close to the planning.

Two of those sources told Reuters the meeting is likely to take place on Friday, though the precise roster of participants remains fluid. The White House declined immediate comment, but administration officials privately describe the meeting as the opening salvo in what could become one of the most ambitious energy redevelopment projects since the post-Soviet privatization of Russia’s oil fields.

Venezuela sits atop the largest proven oil reserves on the planet. Yet its production capacity has been eviscerated over the past two decades, collapsing from more than 3 million barrels per day at the dawn of the century to well under 1 million barrels per day today. Reuters has documented repeatedly how years of sanctions, mismanagement, and ideological nationalization have transformed what was once Latin America’s energy jewel into an industrial wasteland.

Raising crude output is now a top strategic objective for Trump, administration officials told Reuters, especially after U.S. forces seized Maduro over the weekend and installed a transitional authority. The president has framed the effort not merely as reconstruction, but as an opportunity to reshape global energy dynamics while delivering tangible benefits to American consumers.

Speaking earlier this week to House Republicans, Trump declared that increased Venezuelan output could push down oil prices worldwide, saying, “We got a lot of oil to drill, which is going to bring down oil prices even further.” Reuters cited multiple sources who said the White House views Venezuela as a potential lever against inflation — a way to inject new supply into a market that has remained stubbornly tight despite record U.S. shale output.

For the moment, Chevron is the only U.S. oil major still operating in Venezuela, maintaining a limited footprint under special licenses. Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips once dominated Venezuela’s oil fields, until Hugo Chávez nationalized their projects nearly two decades ago, triggering bitter arbitration battles and a long corporate exile.

Neither company has commented publicly on whether it would consider returning, but Reuters sources say industry executives are already dusting off old geological maps and feasibility studies, calculating how quickly dormant assets might be brought back to life if sanctions are lifted.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has emerged as a leading advocate for fast-tracking Venezuela’s revival. In an interview with Fox Business Network, Burgum said that lifting sanctions preventing access to critical oilfield equipment could dramatically accelerate production. Reuters quoted him describing the business opportunity as “really enormous,” adding that “some of these things could be done very quickly.”

Trump, for his part, has spoken openly about government reimbursement and even subsidies to encourage U.S. companies to reenter Venezuela. In an interview with NBC News cited by Reuters, the president said oil companies could spend massive sums upfront and then be reimbursed “by us or through revenue.”

That willingness to deploy federal capital marks a departure from decades of laissez-faire U.S. energy policy. Yet administration officials argue that the strategic payoff — lower fuel costs, diminished Iranian and Russian leverage, and hemispheric energy dominance — justifies the expense.

Still, energy analysts have poured cold water on the administration’s most optimistic timelines. Reuters has canvassed experts who say Venezuela’s degraded infrastructure — rusted pipelines, abandoned upgraders, collapsing storage terminals — will require billions of dollars and years of rehabilitation.

The country’s crude is notoriously heavy and viscous, closer to tar than to Texas light sweet. It requires specialized extraction techniques, diluents for transport, and costly upgrading before it can be refined. With global oil prices hovering around $60 a barrel, many producers prefer cheaper, easier fields.

Daan Struyven, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, told a Miami conference this week that even with a herculean effort, Venezuela might add only 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day over the next year. Reuters reported him predicting that reaching 1.5 to 2 million barrels per day would likely take until the end of the decade — and only with “significant institutional changes” and U.S. backing.

“I wouldn’t rule it out,” Struyven said, “but it will require time, significant institutional changes.”

Energy Secretary Chris Wright is scheduled to address the Goldman Sachs Energy, CleanTech, and Utilities Conference in Miami on Wednesday morning, according to Reuters, with ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance slated to deliver closed-door remarks immediately afterward. The choreography is unmistakable: the administration is aligning Wall Street, Washington, and Big Oil around a common Venezuelan project.

Reuters sources say the Friday White House meeting is expected to explore everything from logistics — importing drilling rigs, restarting diluent imports, modernizing refineries — to financing mechanisms that could blend private capital with federal guarantees.

The Venezuelan gambit is not merely about oil. It is a recalibration of U.S. power in the Western Hemisphere. For two decades, Washington ceded influence in Caracas to Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran. China extended billions in opaque loans. Russia provided military backing. Iran used Venezuela as a sanctions-busting node.

By bringing U.S. firms back into Venezuela’s oil heartland, Trump aims to dislodge that axis and reassert what aides describe to Reuters as “hemispheric energy primacy.” Officials privately compare the moment to the post-Cold War opening of Eastern Europe’s energy markets — but this time, under American supervision.

Yet formidable obstacles remain. Nationalization scars have not healed. Exxon and ConocoPhillips are still litigating compensation claims. Venezuela’s legal framework has been hollowed out by years of authoritarian rule. Any revival will require not only capital, but confidence — in courts, contracts, and property rights.

Administration lawyers told Reuters they are studying models from Iraq and Libya, attempting to design a transitional petroleum law that would reassure investors without triggering nationalist backlash.

Trump insists U.S. industry could expand operations in less than 18 months. Industry veterans are less sanguine. They warn that upgraders capable of processing Venezuela’s bitumen take years to build, that skilled engineers have fled the country, and that corruption permeates every layer of PDVSA, the state oil company.

Still, the president remains undeterred. To aides, the skeptics echo the naysayers who once doubted America’s shale revolution.

As the Reuters report underscored, the Friday meeting is not ceremonial. It is the first step in a plan that, if executed, could redraw global energy flows, depress oil prices, and permanently alter the political economy of Latin America.

From the White House Situation Room to the trading floors of Wall Street, all eyes now turn to Venezuela — a broken petro-state that Washington hopes to refashion into the keystone of a new energy order.