Venezuela, Permitting Reform Top U.S. Oil & Gas Priority List

---

Written by John Egan for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

---

Summary

The American Petroleum Institute echoed elements of President Donald Trump's "energy dominance" agenda at a media briefing on Monday, which took place days after U.S. military forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and tried to convince U.S. oil companies to begin or expand investment and operations in Venezuela.

---

Venezuela Widely Discussed

Executives from the American Petroleum Institute (API) spend almost half of their 60-minute media briefing Monday discussing Venezuela.

"Venezuela is the biggest oil story in the world," said API Chief Executive Officer Mike Sommers. He noted that Venezuelan oil reserves have been estimated at about 300 billion barrels, the world's largest, but cautioned that "reserves don't equal production."

Chevron Corporation (Houston, Texas) is the only U.S.-based oil and gas company still operating in Venezuela. The others, including Exxon Mobil Corporation (Spring, Texas), left in 2007 or before.

Sommers said the Oil & Gas Industry is "unified" that two prerequisites are needed before it will consider investing in Venezuela: establishing security for the local workforce and enacting policy changes, including restoring the rule of law and the sanctity of contracts. He did not specifically discuss Chevron's Venezuelan operations.

Sommers said these changes need to be enacted by Venezuela, but "once these prerequisites are achieved, I am confident the oil will flow." He sidestepped the question of whether the U.S. might have to provide security for oil and gas workers. He also didn't specify a timeline for when oil companies might feel comfortable investing or operating in Venezuela, but he did say, "U.S. companies want to go to Venezuela. It will take a lot of time to get the (Venezuelan) oil system up and running."

In the mid-1970s, Venezuelan oil production peaked at about 3.5 million barrels per day (BBL/d), but has declined steadily to a current level of less than 1 million BBL/d, the API chief remarked.

Top Priorities for U.S. Oil & Gas Industry

Sommers and Dustin Meyers, the API's senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs said the organization had 11 priorities for 2026, clustered into three groups:

• Unleash investment in American energy infrastructure
• Secure and expand access to America's energy, and
• Protect America's energy advantage at home and abroad

Comprehensive permitting reform was the industry's top priority in the second year of the Trump administration, Sommers told reporters. That was one part of the "unleash investment" cluster.

"Realizing all of the industry's priorities all depends on comprehensive, durable permitting reforms that will stand up under either party," Sommers said. "It's time for everyone to put down their swords and work together to enact durable permitting reform."

Sommers thanked the Trump administration for enacting "historic reforms" of the energy industry in its first year in office. The administration's efforts have meant that 11 of the 12 priorities API identified 18 months ago have been realized. Comprehensive permitting reform is the only priority that has proved to be elusive so far.

But that may be changing. Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the SPEED Act, which is designed to reform the permitting of infrastructure. For more on that, see December 31, 2025, article -- SPEED Act Seeks to Streamline Permitting of Energy Assets. To date, no companion bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate.

Aside from permitting reform, three other efforts were part of the "unleash investment" cluster:

• Drive agency implementation of permitting regulations
• Modernize pipeline safety, and
• Power the grid reliably.

The API's second cluster of priorities focused on securing and expanding access to domestic energy. These specific goals include:

• Finalize generational opportunity for energy development on federal lands and waters
• Protect affordable fuels and consumer choice, and
• Accelerate innovation through smart incentives and workable emission rules.

The industry's third group of priorities, protect America's energy advantage at home and abroad, had four elements:

• Push back on foreign regulatory overreach
• Stop extreme climate liability policy
• Solidify U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) leadership, and
• Defend U.S. industrial competitiveness.

State of American Energy

"The state of American energy is strong, and we are entering an unprecedented demand decade," Sommers said, one where meeting rising energy demand will be characterized by "speed, scale and reliability. We need energy realism, policies grounded by facts, not ideology."

Meyer added, "We are facing historic energy demand growth. The restrictive ethos of the past collapsed under reality." Meeting future energy challenges will help win the race to dominate artificial intelligence (AI), he and Sommers agreed.

The API leaders expressed no concern that the future addition of more Venezuelan oil to the global market could depress prices and damage the profitability of domestic producers.

"This industry is built to last," Sommers said. "It has a long-term investment horizon. The industry has adopted significant capital discipline in recent years. The cost to produce has declined in different regions. We are much better prepared to operate" when prices fall.

The API chief added that "we absolutely believe in every energy system, an 'all of the above' strategy," in response to a question about the industry's support for renewable energy. "Oil and gas will be the basis of that (all of the above energy) system during the demand decade."

Briefing Caps Busy Month for Oil & Gas Industry

The API briefing caps a busy month where oil has been in the news.

Since December 10, the U.S. has intercepted five sanctioned oil tankers carrying crude oil from Venezuela bound to other countries.

On January 3, U.S. military forces entered Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro, providing a 21st century update to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine that the Northern Hemisphere was an area of exclusive U.S. influence. In announcing the capture, President Donald Trump said the U.S. will "run" Venezuela, though details were sketchy. Congress has not been a part of the administration's Venezuelan actions.

The president also asserted Venezuela "unilaterally seized and sold American oil, American assets and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars. We want it back."

The alleged theft, which has been challenged by experts in international law, concerned resource nationalization that many Latin American countries implemented over previous decades.

Subsequently, in a Truth Social post, Trump said Venezuela "will be turning over 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil" to the U.S., which will sell it at market prices. The money will be controlled by me, the president of the United States, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States."

Then, last Friday, Trump convened about two dozen oil executives at the White House to discuss investing in and rebuilding Venezuela's oil infrastructure, which has been poorly maintained for years. Leading up to the meeting, in another Truth Social post, Trump said at least $100 billion would be invested (in Venezuela) by Big Oil.

However, most of the executives at the event were noncommittal. Darren Woods, chief executive of ExxonMobil, the largest U.S.-based oil and gas company, said, "We've had our assets seized there twice, and so you can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes," he said. "Today it's uninvestable."

Woods said there needed to be "durable investment protections" before his company tried to resume doing business there. Though Trump administration officials have alluded to various security measures the U.S. might implement in Venezuela, no one said the U.S. military would be responsible for providing guarding U.S. assets or citizens.

In response to Woods' comment, on Sunday night Trump said, "I'd probably be inclined to keep Exxon out (of Venezuela). I didn't like their response."

Though many API members attended last Friday's White House event, an API spokesperson told Industrial Info Resources said the organization did not send a representative.

Key Takeaways

• The American Petroleum Institute's annual "State of American Energy" briefing called for enacting durable, comprehensive permitting reform as its top priority in 2026.
• The briefing follows a month of high-profile oil-related actions by the U.S. government.
• Trump claimed oil companies would invest over $100 billion to rehabilitate Venezuela's oil infrastructure.
• But the CEO of ExxonMobil threw cold water on the idea of rushing into Venezuela absent unspecified but durable investment protections.

---

About IIR News Intelligence
IIR News Intelligence is a trusted source of news for the industrial process and energy markets, powered by Industrial Info Resource's Global Market Intelligence (GMI).

About Industrial Info Resources
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 Trillion (USD).