Trump Meets With Oil Industry Leaders to Discuss Venezuela Infrastructure Investment

President Donald Trump met with nearly two dozen top oil and gas executives at the White House to push for as much as a $100 billion investment in Venezuela's oil infrastructure following the recent military operation that ousted and captured Nicolás Maduro.

The Pitch: Trump urged major companies — including ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips — to help revive Venezuela's deteriorating oil sector using their own capital rather than U.S. government funds. However, no oil company so far has committed to that level of investment, with several executives expressing caution during the televised meeting.

Trump has claimed the investments would "immediately" lower energy prices for Americans and said the United States intends to control and sell Venezuelan oil on the global market.

The Details: During Friday's meeting, Trump appeared to gauge oil executives' interest in investing in Venezuela's energy infrastructure, asking several how long it would take to begin restoring production. Companies represented at the meeting included Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Continental Resources, Halliburton, HKN, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Americas, Repsol, Eni, Aspect Holdings, Tallgrass, Raisa Energy and Hilcorp.

Several members of Trump's Cabinet attended, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

Key Quotes: "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," Trump said during the meeting. "We're all set to do it. We have the refining capacity, (which) was actually based very much on Venezuelan oil, which is a heavy oil, very good oil."

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said Venezuela is "uninvestable" without "significant changes" to make it viable for business. "There's an opportunity in Venezuela … with respect to Venezuela, we have a very long history in Venezuela," Woods said.

How The Media Covered It: Axios (Lean Left bias) framed the situation as a gap between Trump's optimism and industry reality, highlighting Trump's eagerness to move quickly on a deal. But Axios repeatedly contrasts that ambition with the cautious tone of major oil companies, especially Exxon, ConocoPhillips and Chevron. In contrast, Newsmax (Right) presented the Venezuela oil plan in a positive, pro-business light, focusing on President Trump's claims of a major economic opportunity and U.S. leadership. It emphasized Trump's announcement that American energy companies will spend $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela's oil infrastructure, portraying this as a "great" development for both U.S. firms and the country's oil sector.

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