By Collin Eaton

The Trump administration is officially paving the way for global oil companies to jump back into Venezuela, a country that most of the U.S. oil industry has stayed out of for the past two decades.

On Friday, the Treasury Department issued a general license allowing certain large oil companies to invest in new oil-and-gas operations in the Latin American country. The companies that made the list were Chevron, the only U.S. oil company currently operating in Venezuela, as well as some European rivals Shell, BP, Italy's ENI and Spain's Repsol.

The Treasury also issued a general license that will allow other companies to negotiate and enter contracts to pump oil and gas in Venezuela, contingent on the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control's approval of the contracts.

Last month, a U.S. incursion into Caracas culminated in the capture of Venezuela's former President Nicolás Maduro. President Trump and his top officials, including Energy Sec. Chris Wright, have urged both Venezuela's interim government and U.S. oil companies to find ways to restore the country's oil production.

Venezuela pumped more than 3 million barrels of oil a day in the 1990s. But its output has fallen to about 900,000 barrels a day, after years of low investment left the industry needing to repair pipelines, power systems and fix other infrastructure bottlenecks.

The new U.S. general licenses require payments of oil or gas royalties or taxes to Venezuela or its state-run energy giant, Petróleos de Venezuela. Those royalties or taxes would be paid into the U.S. Treasury's foreign government deposit fund. Transactions with entities of Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Iran and China are still prohibited, the Treasury Department said.

The licenses come a few weeks after Venezuela's interim government made changes to its hydrocarbon law to ease state control of its dilapidated oil industry. For the most part, large U.S. oil companies have downplayed the chances that they will quickly plow billions of dollars into Venezuela, even as Trump has urged them to spend $100 billion fixing up the country's oil infrastructure.

Chevron, which has signaled it aims to raise its oil output in Venezuela, said it welcomed the administration's move.

The new general licenses, alongside changes to Venezuela's hydrocarbon law favorable to foreign oil companies, "are important steps toward enabling the further development of Venezuela's resources for its people and for advancing regional energy security," Chevron spokesman Kevin Slagle said.

Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth recently told analysts on a conference call that it's too early to determine his company's long-term outlook on Venezuela. The company is looking for stability in the country, as well as more favorable fiscal terms, before laying the groundwork for sizable new investments there, he said

"There'll be a number of signposts that we'll be watching," Wirth said. "It'll have to compete in our portfolio versus attractive investments in many other parts of the world. With the right changes, we certainly could see our operations in the footprint expand in Venezuela."

Write to Collin Eaton at collin.eaton@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 13, 2026 15:15 ET (20:15 GMT)

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