President Trump on Friday said major U.S. oil companies will invest $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s energy sector after the successful capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking in the East Room of the White House during a meeting with nearly two dozen top oil and gas executives, Trump said American energy companies will rebuild Venezuela’s “rotting” oil infrastructure and push production to record levels.
“American companies will have the opportunity to rebuild Venezuela’s rotting energy infrastructure and eventually increase oil production to levels never, ever seen before,” Trump said. “When you add Venezuela and the United States together, we have 55% of the oil in the world.”
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Trump said his administration will determine which companies are permitted to operate in Venezuela, according to Reuters.
“Our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100 billion of their money, not the government’s money … to rebuild the capacity and the infrastructure necessary,” Trump said. “Venezuela has also agreed that the United States will immediately begin refining and selling up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil, which will continue indefinitely.”
The president said the effort would directly benefit U.S. consumers, noting that gas prices are already low nationwide, with some drivers paying less than $2 per gallon.
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“One of the things the United States gets out of this will be even lower energy prices. We have people now getting gasoline for $1.99, $1.96, $1.95, $1.92,” Trump said. “It used to be $3.5, $4, $5 a gallon. Think of that. $1.99.”
The lineup of oil companies in the meeting included Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Continental, Halliburton, HKN, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Americas, Repsol, Eni, Aspect Holdings, Tallgrass, Raisa Energy and Hilcorp.
Trump on Tuesday said in a social media post that Venezuelan oil will be immediately turned over to the U.S., saying, “Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America.
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“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! I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately. It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States.”
Chevron is the only U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela, while ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil had operations in the country before the regime nationalized their assets.
FOX Business’ Emma Colton and Eric Revell contributed to this report.
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