Crude costs decrease as Maduro overthrow casts uncertainty over Venezuela

Crude oil costs edged decrease Sunday, because the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro by the Trump administration has forged deep uncertainty over oil-rich Venezuela.

U.S. crude oil fell 31 cents, or 0.54%, to $57.01 per barrel. International benchmark Brent fell 22 cents, or 0.36%, to $60.53 per barrel.

President Donald Trump made it clear Saturday that U.S. funding in Venezuela’s oil sector is a key goal of the regime change operation that ousted Maduro.

“We’ll have our very massive United States oil corporations — the largest anyplace on the earth — go in, spend billions of {dollars}, repair the badly damaged infrastructure, the oil infrastructure,” Trump stated in a press convention from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Seaside, Florida.

The president stated Saturday that the U.S. embargo of Venezuelan oil stays in place.

Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, sits on the biggest confirmed crude oil reserves on the earth at 303 billion barrels or about 17% of the worldwide whole, in response to the U.S. Vitality Data Administration.

Caracas produced about 3.5 million barrels per day at its peak within the late Nineties, however output has declined considerably since then, in response to power consulting agency Kpler. The South American nation is presently producing about 800,000 bpd, Kpler information reveals.

Chevron is the one U.S. oil main working in Venezuela. It was exporting about 140,000 bpd on the finish of the fourth quarter of 2025, in response to Kpler.

The affect of Maduro’s overthrow on oil costs is ambiguous within the brief run, stated Daan Struyven, head of oil analysis at Goldman Sachs. Manufacturing may edge increased if a U.S.-supported authorities is put in and the Trump administration lifts sanctions in opposition to Venezuela, Struveyn advised purchasers in a Sunday observe.

However Maduro’s ouster may additionally result in provide disruptions within the brief time period, the analyst stated. Long run, U.S. funding that enhances Venezuelan manufacturing would put downward strain on oil costs, Struvyven stated. A restoration of manufacturing, nonetheless, will doubtless be gradual and partial, he stated.

Oil executives working in Venezuela say it should value $10 billion yearly to show manufacturing round and a secure safety setting is important to develop manufacturing again to historic ranges, stated Helima Croft, head of world commodity technique at RBC Capital Markets.

Full sanctions aid may convey a number of hundred thousand barrels of manufacturing again over a 12-month interval if there’s an orderly transition of energy, Croft advised purchasers in a Saturday observe.

“Nonetheless, all bets are off in a chaotic change of energy situation like what occurred in Libya or Iraq,” she stated.