US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order protecting US-held funds generated from sale of Venezuelan oil following the ouster of Nicolas Maduro, the White House said.
In the order signed Friday, Trump, who has made clear that tapping Venezuela’s vast oil reserves is a key goal of the US effort to remove Maduro, is acting “to advance US foreign policy objectives,” according to a White House fact sheet accompanying the order, AFP reported.
The move follows a meeting in Washington on Friday in which Trump urged senior oil executives to invest in Venezuela.
The response was cautious, with ExxonMobil’s chief executive calling the country “uninvestable” without sweeping reforms.
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What is the executive order?
ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips exited Venezuela in 2007 after refusing demands by then president Hugo Chavez to hand majority control to the state.
Both companies have since sought to recover billions of dollars they say Venezuela owes them. Chevron is currently the only US firm licensed to operate in the country.
Trump’s executive order declares a national emergency “to safeguard Venezuelan oil revenue held in US Treasury accounts from attachment or judicial process,” the fact sheet said.
The measure effectively places those revenues under special protection to prevent seizure by courts or creditors, a step the administration says is necessary for US national security and foreign policy.
“President Trump is preventing the seizure of Venezuelan oil revenue that could undermine critical U.S. efforts to ensure economic and political stability in Venezuela,” the fact sheet said.
Venezuela, under US sanctions since 2019, holds about a fifth of the world’s oil reserves and was once a major crude supplier to the United States. However, it produced only around one percent of global crude output in 2024, according to OPEC, after years of underinvestment, sanctions and embargoes.
Trump views Venezuela’s vast oil reserves as a potential windfall in his push to further lower US domestic fuel prices.
The executive order comes one week after US forces seized authoritarian leader Maduro in a nighttime operation in Caracas that killed dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban security personnel.
