2026-01-04T19:09:38.332Z
The US captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise raid on Saturday.
In a press conference, Trump said the US will look to tap the country’s oil reserves.
Venezuela is home to over 300 billion barrels of proven crude oil, the largest reserves globally.
Venezuela is home to over 300 billion barrels of proven crude oil — more than any other country in the world.
That’s not the reason President Donald Trump gave, however, for the surprise raid on Venezuela on Saturday that netted its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife.
The Trump administration said Maduro’s capture was a law enforcement operation. Maduro has been indicted on drug trafficking and weapons charges and is now awaiting his first hearing in a notorious Brooklyn jail.
In a press conference on Saturday, though, Trump said that with Maduro removed from the country, the US would now look to tap the country’s oil reserves.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said.
Trump called Venezuela’s oil business a “bust” and “nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping, and what could have taken place.”
While it’s home to a fifth of the world’s oil reserves, Venezuela accounts for less than 1% of global daily crude production.
Take a look at how its reserves compare to other countries. This data, from OPEC, does not include oil sands deposits, which account for the majority of Canada’s proven crude oil reserves.
