"Given Venezuela’s murky political future, few analysts expect a rush to invest the billions needed to pump more oil from the world’s largest reserves."
"Last March, Venezuela’s two most prominent opposition leaders transmitted a video message to Houston, appealing to one of the largest and most influential annual meetings of global energy titans.
“Venezuela represents the greatest untapped opportunity in the world,” said Edmundo González Urrutia, the former ambassador widely seen as the rightful winner of the nation’s disputed 2024 presidential election. Then, his running-mate and architect of the opposition campaign, María Corina Machado, came on screen. Soon there would be a “successful, secure and open society” in the nation that holds the largest petroleum reserves on Earth, she told the oil and energy company executives and government officials who had gathered for S&P Global’s CERAWeek.
It is not clear whether the video did much to enhance the lure of investing in Venezuela for the energy companies, some of which are still owed billions of dollars for the upending of their operations in the nation amid political turmoil nearly two decades ago. The dissidents had no power to make good on their promises—González was in Spain, and Machado, who would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize later that year, was in seclusion in Venezuela. Both were living under threat of arrest from the government of President Nicolás Maduro."
Marianne Lavelle and Georgina Gustin report for Inside Climate News January 7, 2026.
SEE ALSO:
"Chris Wright: US Will Control Venezuelan Oil ‘Indefinitely’" (E&E News)
"Oil Firms Say Venezuela Owes Them Billions Over Earlier Investments" (New York Times)
"Democrats Seek Answers About Oil Industry’s Knowledge of Venezuela Operation" (New York Times)
"Trump Wants Venezuela’s Oil. Getting It Might Not Be So Simple" (WIRED)
"U.S. Sets Out Bare-Bones Plan to Control Venezuela’s Oil Sales" (New York Times)
"5 Things Need To Happen For Big Oil To Return To Venezuela" (CNN)
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