Business & Economics
U.S. Energy Chief Begins Post-Maduro Mission to Kick-Start $100 B Venezuelan Oil Rebuild
On 11 Feb 2026, Energy Secretary Chris Wright arrived in Caracas for a three-day inspection tour, inaugurating Washington’s hands-on $100 billion plan to revive Venezuela’s oil sector only five weeks after U.S. forces ousted Nicolás Maduro.
Focusing Facts
- The U.S. Treasury on 10 Feb 2026 issued General License 44, authorising foreign firms to supply goods, tech and software for Venezuelan oil-and-gas exploration and production despite the 2019 sanctions regime.
- Venezuela’s Hydrocarbons Reform Law, passed 20 Jan 2026, ends PDVSA’s production monopoly and grants private operators full control over output, pricing and export contracts plus access to independent arbitration.
- A preliminary U.S.–Venezuela agreement signed 15 Jan 2026 commits Washington to purchase $2 billion in crude and to mobilise up to $100 billion in reconstruction finance for energy infrastructure.
Context
Great-power meddling in oil fields is nothing new: London’s 1901 concession to William Knox D’Arcy in Persia and Washington’s 1953 role in re-installing the Shah both hinged on promises to modernise decrepit wells in exchange for control of exports. Today’s post-Maduro gambit echoes that pattern of coupling regime change with market liberalisation. The move fits a longer trend—visible since the 1970s petrodollar system and the 2003 Iraq invasion—of the United States using energy leverage to re-shape geopolitical blocs, this time aiming to offset potential Russian supply shocks and anchor hemispheric “energy dominance.” Whether Venezuela’s battered infrastructure, fractious politics and memories of past expropriations (2007 nationalisations) will entice capital is uncertain, but if successful the deal could shift 300 billion-barrel reserves from strategic liability to swing capacity—an outcome that would reverberate through oil pricing and North–South power dynamics for decades, perhaps rivaling the 1914 opening of the Mexican oil boom in its century-long significance.
Perspectives
Business-oriented U.S. and energy trade outlets
e.g., Devdiscourse Energy, Yahoo Finance — Present the visit as a pivotal move in Trump’s "American energy dominance" doctrine that will fast-track foreign investment and jointly enrich the United States and a post-Maduro Venezuela. Coverage closely mirrors administration rhetoric and investor optimism, glossing over sovereignty issues and humanitarian fallout to foreground corporate gains.
International wire services and outlets carrying AP/AFP copy
e.g., Court House News Service, France 24 — Highlight that the U.S. seized and ousted Nicolás Maduro and has now assumed a "self-appointed" role in overhauling Venezuela’s oil industry, casting Wright’s trip as part of a wider U.S. intervention. Frequent emphasis on the "brazen" military takeover and Washington’s demands can tilt the narrative toward depicting the U.S. as a neo-imperial power while under-playing possible economic benefits cited by supporters.