President Donald Trump said Saturday that the removal of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro will unlock the country’s $17.3 trillion oil reserve and place it under U.S. control, according to a press conference held hours after U.S. forces captured Maduro during an early-morning operation in Caracas.

“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 and start making money for the country,” Trump told reporters. “They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been.”

The operation that led to Maduro’s capture took place early Saturday and included U.S. armed forces and law enforcement striking multiple locations in Caracas. Trump said the U.S. will temporarily run Venezuela, though he did not say who would manage the country or how long that control would last.

Trump lays out oil takeover plan after Caracas operation

Right now, Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves in the world, estimated at about 300 billion barrels, which means it’s above Saudi Arabia, the literal largest oil producer of the OPEC itself.

At his press conference, Trump said the U.S. built the oil industry decades ago and accused the prior government of theft.

“We built Venezuela’s oil industry with American talent, drive, skill, and the socialist regime stole it from us,” he said. “This constituted one of the largest thefts of American property in the history of our country.”

Trump confirmed that the U.S. oil embargo on Venezuela is active. “The embargo is in full effect,” he said, repeating the accusation again directly:- “They stole our oil. They took it over like it was nothing.”

When asked how U.S. control of oil supply could affect ties with China, Russia, and Iran, Trump said oil sales will continue globally. “We’ll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries,” he said. “We’re in the oil business. We’re going to sell it to them.”

For decades, Venezuela relied on oil exports as its main economic engine. Analysts say China is currently its largest oil buyer, though shipment data remains unclear due to limited transparency. Beijing reacted quickly to Maduro’s removal. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the U.S. action violated international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty and threatened regional security, adding that China firmly opposed the move.

Aging infrastructure, sanctions, and Venezuela’s gold reserves take center stage

Only one U.S. company currently operates inside Venezuela. Chevron holds a limited license issued by the Trump administration. A Chevron spokesperson said Saturday that the company is focused on employee safety and asset protection and is operating in compliance with all laws and regulations.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said restoring oil production to 1990s levels would cost more than $8 billion, citing estimates from PDVSA, the state oil company. Many oil pipelines are more than 50 years old, and most reserves are extra-heavy crude, which is very expensive to extract and process.

The EIA said on Saturday that:-

“The extraction of extra-heavy crude oil requires a higher level of technical expertise, which international oil companies possess but their involvement has been limited by international sanctions. Furthermore, budgetary constraints at Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA and a lack of qualified technical personnel and foreign direct investment have all hampered Venezuela’s oil and natural gas development.”

Despite those constraints, PDVSA remains the largest revenue source for the Maduro government.

Oil markets have not yet reacted. Crude trading resumes Sunday evening. Meanwhile, Venezuela holds 161 metric TONS of gold reserves, which is around 5.18 million troy ounces, worth ~$22 billion at current prices of $4,300/oz.

This makes Venezuela the Latin American country with the largest gold holdings. Every $100 that gold rises, these holdings gain +$518 million of value. It’s clear that controlling Venezuela will generate hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue for the US. So will the US take control of these gold reserves? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

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