While all eyes are on the Strait of Hormuz, where 20 percent of the world’s oil passes through, other energy developments are occurring down south — in Venezuela, to be exact, where the U.S. nabbed former president and dictator Nicolás Maduro in January with Operation Absolute Resolve.
Maduro now sits in a cell in Brooklyn, New York, awaiting trial on narco‑terrorism and drug‑trafficking charges.
Trump has long wanted to tap the country's vast resources and has been frustrated by what has largely been a wasted opportunity:
Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves. Under Venezuela's former president Nicholas Maduro oil exports had dropped significantly, due to a lack of investment. Then came US sanctions against any imports from the Latin American country.
But US President Donald Trump vowed to tap those reserves after the US military captured Maduro in a surprise, night-time raid in January.
Now the oil is flowing again in Venezuela. In March, the country's monthly crude exports surpassed one million barrels per day. The first time since September.
There's plenty of untapped oil in the energy-rich South American country, and U.S. companies want to be a part of taking advantage:
International oil majors Chevron (CVX.N) and Shell (SHEL.L) are closing in on the first big oil production deals with Venezuela since the U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro in January, five sources close to the negotiations told Reuters.
The deals would allow both companies to boost production in coveted oil regions in the South American country, the biggest steps to date toward what U.S. President Donald Trump has said would be a $100 billion effort to rebuild Venezuela's oil industry after decades of mismanagement and underinvestment under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez.
According to Andy Walz, the president of the refining, transportation, and chemical industry division of the American company Chevron, Chevron currently imports an average of 250,000 barrels of oil from Venezuela per day
— Sprinter Press (@SprinterPress) April 8, 2026
"We believe that we can increase this volume by another… pic.twitter.com/bE9PA20drX
"We believe that we can increase this volume by another 50%, that is, to about 350,000–400,000 barrels per day, just by Chevron's share in Venezuelan oil," he adds.
With Maduro out of the picture, energy opportunities are expanding, and the United States is directly benefiting:
Venezuela's National Assembly in late January approved a sweeping reform of the country's main oil law. It now grants foreign companies autonomy to operate, export and sell Venezuelan oil even when they are minority partners of state-owned oil company PDVSA.
Chevron and Venezuela's energy authorities have agreed on preliminary terms to expand Chevron's largest oil project, Petropiar, in the vast Orinoco Belt, two of the sources said.
In fact, Chevron is already refining Venezuelan oil — lots of it.
Chevron now imports the equivalent of 250,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude oil per day, on average, says Andy Walz, president of downstream, midstream and chemicals at Chevron.
"We think we can take that up another 50% so call it somewhere around 350,000 to 400,000 barrels a day of just the Chevron share of our position in Venezuela."
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Although the U.S. is not heavily reliant on oil coming out of the Strait of Hormuz, the Middle East conflict and Iran’s terrorizing of the crucial waterway have nevertheless rattled energy markets and sent gas prices soaring at the pumps. The more we can diversify supply, the better protected we’ll be. Venezuela, with some of the largest oil deposits in the world, is a heckuva good place to start.
You are not missed, Mr. Maduro.
Editor’s Note: Democrats have been waging war on our energy production for decades.
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