Explaining Trump’s Claim That Venezuela ‘Stole’ U.S. Oil

President Donald Trump said one reason that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela and “indefinitely” control its oil sales is that “years ago, Venezuela took our oil away from us” and “stole our assets.” That’s an oversimplification of what happened when Venezuela assumed greater control of its energy sector.

In 2007, under then-President Hugo Chávez, Venezuela continued the nationalization of its oil industry that began in 1976. The Chavez administration required the foreign oil companies still operating in the country to enter into new contracts that would give Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company majority control of their oil projects.

The companies that did not agree to those conditions were expropriated, meaning their oil-related assets were seized by the Venezuelan government.

“They did change the terms of the deals that they had with the companies that were operating in Venezuela,” Roxanna Vigil, an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told us in an interview. But Vigil said the assets belonged to the private companies, not the U.S. government.

Furthermore, the oil in the ground always belonged to Venezuela.