After Trump push, Venezuela moves to open oil sector, ending years of state control

Venezuela’s National Assembly on Thursday approved a law to open the country’s oil sector to private companies, reversing a policy that has kept the industry under state control for more than 20 years.

The vote comes less than a month after then-President Nicolás Maduro was seized in a US military operation in Caracas. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who proposed the changes soon after US President Donald Trump said his administration would take control of Venezuela’s oil exports and seek foreign investment.


The revised law allows private companies to control oil production and sales. It also permits disputes to be settled through independent arbitration, instead of only in Venezuelan courts. A draft of the legislation says extraction taxes will be changed, with royalties capped at 30 per cent. The government will be able to adjust rates for individual projects based on investment needs and competitiveness.

Rodríguez’s government says the changes are meant to reassure foreign oil firms, especially US companies that lost assets when the industry was nationalised two decades ago in favour of the state-run oil company PDVSA.

Ruling party lawmaker Orlando Camacho said the reform “will change the country’s economy”.

Opposition lawmaker Antonio Ecarri supported the move but called for more transparency and accountability. “Let the light shine on in the oil industry,” he said, urging public disclosure of funding and contracts.

The oil law was last overhauled under former president Hugo Chávez, who made state control central to his socialist agenda. Since then, falling oil prices, mismanagement and sanctions have weakened PDVSA and deepened Venezuela’s economic crisis.

The US Treasury Department also on Thursday relaxed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector, as the Trump administration seeks to increase investment and boost oil production.