Venezuela’s government on Thursday approved opening the country’s oil sector to private investors.
This move ended decades of state control over the oil industry after Acting President Delcy Rodríguez signed the measure Thursday, following approval by the National Assembly earlier in the day, the Associated Press reported. The vote came weeks after a U.S. military operation in Caracas removed President Nicolás Maduro and set off a rapid overhaul of the country’s political and economic systems.
As lawmakers finalized the overhaul, the U.S. Treasury Department began rolling back restrictions that had strangled Venezuela’s oil output and widened the scope for American firms to operate there. The steps followed plans outlined a day earlier by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and showed a coordinated effort to bring the country back into global energy markets.
Rodríguez said the decision is a generational reset, arguing the country must prioritize long-term stability over ideological rigidity. She said the changes aim to rebuild an industry that once powered the Venezuelan economy but has since collapsed under mismanagement, sanctions and capital flight.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump said Venezuela will direct revenue from a new oil arrangement exclusively toward buying American-made goods. Trump announced that Venezuela’s interim government plans to send between 30 million and 50 million barrels of oil to the United States and use the proceeds to purchase U.S. farm products, medicines, medical equipment and materials to upgrade the country’s power grid and energy infrastructure.
“Venezuela is committing to doing business with the United States of America as their principal partner — A wise choice, and a very good thing for the people of Venezuela, and the United States,” Trump said.
After Maduro was captured, the U.S. moved to expand its influence across the Western Hemisphere and pursue access to Venezuela’s vast energy reserves, energy experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Analysts said American companies originally built and led Venezuela’s oil industry before Hugo Chávez brought it under state control.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour)
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