What To Know About U.S. Prospects In Venezuela Oilfields

Originally published on Forbes.com on January 4, 2026

Do U.S. oil companies want to jump into Venezuela to produce the heavy, sour oil? Here are specifics of oil production down there, and the issues.

The oilfields of Venezuela are at the center of the takeover of the country by the U.S. and the abduction of President Maduro. President Trump said the U.S. would run the country for a while, and would restore the infrastructure of the oilfields by bringing in U.S. oil companies. Here we answer some of the questions that pertain to the Venezuelan oilfields.

Q1. Where are the oilfields? The world’s largest oil reserves are concentrated in the Orinoco Belt, consisting mainly of heavy and sour crude oil. The Belt is 375 miles in length and 56 miles in width, and perhaps 90% of the world’s extra-heavy crude lies in this basin. But roughly only 3% of the immense volume of oil reserves will have been produced by past and current operations.  

Q2. What kind of oil exists in Venezuela?  Heavy and sour crude oil is what it’s called (and much of it is extra-heavy or tar-like). Heavy means more dense, and sour means a high content of sulfur, which damages the insides of metal pipes. Some of this requires extra processing to become light enough for transport. The U.S. imports heavy oil because some of its refineries on the Gulf Coast were designed to take heavy oil. 

Q3. Is this heavy, sour oil hard to produce? Yes. Primary production in the Orinoco Belt relies on reservoir pressure driving oil into vertical wells or wells with horizontal extensions of 3,000 – 6,000 feet. But this is limited because it can only recover 8% – 12% of the original oil. Secondary and tertiary recovery methods are needed. Although more difficult, they can lead to 20% recovery, or even higher.

Secondary recovery includes waterflooding or gas injection, which includes the huff-and-puff mode. Diluents, such as naptha or light oil, are needed to lower viscosity so the oil can flow more easily through wells and pipes.

Tertiary recovery includes thermal recovery using steam or chemical recovery using surfactants or polymers.

Q4. How large are the crude oil reserves? It’s a surprise, but Venezuela contains the largest proven oil reserves in the world at 303 billion barrels. Saudi Arabia is No. 2 at 267 billion barrels. Iran is No. 3 at 209 billion barrels. Russia is well down at 80 billion barrels, while the U.S. has just 45 billion barrels.

Q5. How much Venezuelan oil is produced daily? About 860,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November of 2025, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Oil production peaked near 3 million bpd in 1997. Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999 and started nationalizing the oil industry. But it collapsed in the period 2017-2020 when Trump imposed two separate sanctions on the oil industry.  By 2020, oil production was a bit more than 500,000 bpd.

So the current rate is less than 1 million bpd, which compares with 13.5 million bpd in the U.S. Crude oil from Venezuela is shipped to China, southern Europe, and the U.S., with China taking the dominant amount (80%).

Q6. Do oil export revenues fund the government of Venezuela?  Yes, more than half the government’s budget, according to Vanessa Buschschluter of BBC News. This was one of the reasons for sanctions on Venezuelan oil production imposed by the U.S. during the first Trump administration. Venezuela ranked No. 23 for crude oil export revenues—almost $9.9 billion in 2024. This is small potatoes compared with top-tier exporters of Saudi Arabia $191 billion, Russia $122 billion, the U.S. $118 billion, and the UK $16 billion.

Q7. Could big U.S. oil companies make Venezuela an oil success? One answer is maybe, because the infrastructure for the oil and gas industry has been deteriorating. Raising production will require a lot of time and a lot of money. To get production back to 3 million bpd, its previous peak, would take up to $100 billion in investment over the next decade. The only U.S. company still operating in Venezuela, Chevron, might be willing to invest in its own facilities to increase production.

Q8. Does the U.S. oil industry want to produce more oil? The short answer is no. Global prices for oil fell 20% in 2025, the biggest losses since the pandemic of 2020. Trump’s tariffs have shaken the markets and contributed to this, as oil companies prefer long-term political and financial stability. But the truth is the oil market is soft because its over-supplied. Producers are choosing very carefully where to spend money drilling new wells.

Q9. Will a new government of Venezuela be stable for a decade or more? Nobody knows. President Trump said he will stay in the country until it has stabilized. We know how long that took in Iraq. First, a stable government has to be in place. Then, U.S. oil companies have to evaluate existing wells and facilities that can be fixed, and decide what new wells and facilities will be needed. This would take months and months and require billions of investment. The critical piece is the stability of the Venezuelan government over the future decades.