Energy secretary plans visit to Venezuela -- but says Trump isn't focused on its oil riches
Source: Politico
02/09/2026 05:01 AM EST
Updated: 02/09/2026 11:35 AM EST
Energy Secretary Chris Wright told POLITICO he will soon travel to Venezuela to meet its leaders and discuss the future of its state-run oil company but he insisted that the Trump administrations interests in the resource-rich nation dont revolve around oil.
In an exclusive interview for the POLITICO Energy podcast, Wright said that deposing former leader Nicolás Maduro was not a move for more oil supply, and that the countrys world-leading crude reserves were never a meaningful part of the decision-making.
This was a geopolitical problem of a country that was a threat to all of its neighbors, a threat to the Western hemisphere, and a massive exporter of guns, of drugs, of criminals, Wright said. It may be a nice coincidence, but it is coincidental that Venezuelas main product and giant resource is oil.
In the weeks since the U.S. military raid that captured Maduro, President Donald Trump has repeatedly declared that the U.S. would rebuild Venezuelas oil sector to the benefit of American consumers. One of the things the United States gets out of this will be even lower energy prices, Trump told oil executives at the White House last month despite public skepticism from executives such as Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods that the still-unstable country is a viable place to invest.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/09/chris-wright-venezuela-visit-trump-oil-00770414
Non-stop, abject and unrelenting lying.
Miguelito Loveless
(5,537 posts)on the bank statements showing the "oil riches" going into ti his Qatari account.
William Seger
(12,289 posts)... you lying sack of used condoms.
lonely bird
(2,825 posts)Wright is flat out lying.
The U.S. is much more of a threat to the Western Hemisphere than Venezuela.
AZJonnie
(3,230 posts)Says someone from the country who exports by FAR AND AWAY the MOST guns of any country in the freaking world.
johnnyfins
(3,585 posts)Capturing Maduro, throwing him in jail, and getting him to say that he interfered in the 2020 election?
BumRushDaShow
(167,227 posts)He was the conduit for the ghost of Hugo Chavez (who died in 2013).
Election deniers think Maduros capture will expose plot to steal 2020 vote
johnnyfins
(3,585 posts)Why was the DNI Director at the vote grab in Fulton County, GA recently?
The whole thing is a lie, but "Foreign Interference" in our elections will be an excuse to grab all matter of votes, machines, etc. this November.
BumRushDaShow
(167,227 posts)that they are attempting to "prove" over and over and over.
