U.S. President Donald Trump held a meeting with executives from some of the world's largest oil companies at the White House on Friday (January 9) to discuss Venezuela, saying that boosting crude production from the country will help the United States.

The meeting reflects the importance of oil to Trump’s strategy for the OPEC nation after U.S. forces seized the South American country’s leader Nicolas Maduro in a brazen overnight raid on its capital January 3. "We're going to discuss how these great American companies can help rapidly rebuild Venezuela's dilapidated oil industry and bring millions of barrels of oil production to benefit the United States, the people of Venezuela and the entire world," Trump said at the opening of the meeting. "We're going to be making the decision as to which oil companies are going to go in, that we're going to allow to go in," he said.

Trump administration officials have said they need to control Venezuela’s oil sales and revenues indefinitely to ensure the country acts in America’s interests, and also want to see big oil companies plow billions of dollars into rehabilitating Venezuela’s oilfields.

Oil companies participating in the talks include many of the biggest names - Chevron, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips - but also several smaller independents and private equity-backed players, including some with links to Colorado, the home state of Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 9, 2026) (UNRESTRICTED POOL - Access all)

1. U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP ARRIVING FOR EVENT

2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING:

"So we're going to discuss how these great American companies can help rapidly rebuild Venezuela's dilapidated oil industry and bring millions of barrels of oil production to benefit the United States, the people of Venezuela and the entire world. And yesterday, the numbers. 30 million barrels. I can't even - is that a correct number? 30 million barrels. You hear that, Peter? Of oil was given to us by Venezuela. That's a lot of oil. That's about 4 billion dollars worth. It's on its way to the United States right now."

3. OIL COMPANY EXECUTIVES LISTENING

4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING:

"And we're going to be working with Venezuela. We're going to be making the decision as to which companies are going to go in, we're going to allow to go in."

5. OIL COMPANY EXECUTIVES LISTENING

6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING:

"So you're dealing with us directly, you're not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don't want you to deal with Venezeula."

7. OIL COMPANY EXECUTIVES LISTENING

8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING:

"The plan is for them to spend at least $100 billion to rebuild the capacity and the infrastructure necessary. Venezuela has also agreed that the United States will immediately begin refining and selling up to $50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil, which will continue indefinitely."

9. OIL COMPANY EXECUTIVES LISTENING

10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING:

"And we have a lot of people that will be back to see us sometime next week. We're going to have another meeting for another group."

11. GENERAL VIEW OF EVENT