Donald Trump plans to use Venezuela’s vast crude reserves to establish control of most of the western hemisphere’s oil in an attempt to drive the market price down to about $50 (£37) a barrel, according to reports.
The US president has repeatedly raised the prospect of producing enough crude from Venezuela’s oilfields to drive down the US oil price from more than $56 a barrel today to about $50 in an effort to cut energy costs for consumers, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited senior Trump administration officials.
Global oil markets have already recorded significant losses in recent years due to an oversupply of crude. Prices slumped by almost 20% in 2025, marking the biggest annual loss since the Covid-19 pandemic and the first time the oil market has recorded three consecutive years of annual losses.
As well as driving market prices lower, officials reportedly claimed Trump’s plans to control Venezuela’s oil reserves, which are the largest in the world, include cutting Russia and China’s access to the South American country in order to establish a western hemisphere oil production stronghold.
The White House confirmed on Wednesday the US planned to control Venezuela’s oil sales “indefinitely” after laying claim to 50m barrels of blockaded crude.
The oil, which is stranded in tankers and storage facilities, could be worth up to $3bn (once sold on the global market, with the proceeds used to “benefit the Venezuelan people”, according to the US energy secretary, Chris Wright.
On Wednesday, Trump said Venezuela would use the profits it made from any deal it struck with Washington to sell oil solely to buy US-made goods.
“I have just been informed that Venezuela is going to be purchasing ONLY American Made Products, with the money they receive from our new Oil Deal,” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The US laid claim to the under-sanctions crude this week, and also seized a Russian oil tanker linked to Venezuela after a two-week pursuit.
If Trump was able to increase Venezuela’s oil output from 1m barrels a day (bpd), or less than 1% of global demand, to its previous highs of about 3m, he would bring US domestic production to about 14m bpd. This represents about one-third of the 40m bpd output of countries in the Opec+ alliance.
However, there are doubts about whether Trump will be able to reignite Venezuela’s beleaguered oil industry after decades of underinvestment and corruption.
The president has promised that US oil companies will return to the region to spend billions upgrading its infrastructure and growing its production. But the companies – including Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips – are reportedly wary.
Trump said this week that US oil companies could be “reimbursed by us, or through revenue” if they invested in Venezuela. But executives have reportedly told the Financial Times they will want “serious guarantees” from the Trump administration before investing billions to increase Venezuela’s crude output.
“No one wants to go in there when a random fucking tweet can change the entire foreign policy of the country,” one private equity investor who specialises in energy told the FT.
Oil bosses met US officials at an industry conference in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday, and are due to meet Trump at the White House on Friday.
