US energy stocks rose sharply on Monday after President Donald Trump said the United States would move to unlock Venezuela’s oil reserves following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Shares in Chevron, which already operates in Venezuela under a special US licence, rose about 5 per cent. Exxon Mobil gained around 2 per cent, while oil services group Halliburton surged almost 8 per cent. The rally helped push the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 49,000 during the session.
Oil prices also moved higher, recovering from earlier weakness despite concerns that additional Venezuelan supply could deepen an already well-supplied market. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.87 per cent to US$58.39 a barrel, while Brent crude gained 1.84 per cent to US$61.87 a barrel.
Venezuela currently produces about 1 per cent of global oil output, after years of underinvestment, US sanctions and operational decline. However, it holds roughly 17 per cent of the world’s proven crude reserves, according to US government data, giving it long-term significance for global supply.
Trump said over the weekend that large US oil companies would “go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country”. So far, major US producers have not publicly confirmed plans to invest. Former Chevron executive Ali Moshiri said he was raising US$2bn to invest in Venezuelan oil projects through his Amos Global Energy Management fund.
Analysts said any increase in Venezuelan production would take years. Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said upgrading infrastructure, drilling new wells and expanding refining capacity would likely push any meaningful supply increase well into the next decade. Venezuela pumped nearly 3.5m barrels a day in the late 1990s, compared with about 1m barrels a day now.
Former BP chief executive John Browne said reviving Venezuela’s oil industry would require “a tremendous amount of skill, investment and time”, warning that output could initially fall further as operations are reorganised.
Venezuela’s political upheaval has also lifted its bond market. A government bond maturing in 2027 has risen from about 31.5 cents on the dollar to above 40 cents, while a bond due in 2022 has climbed to around 34 cents.
Despite the developments, OPEC+ signalled no immediate change to its production strategy, agreeing at a scheduled meeting on Sunday to maintain its pause on output increases until at least April.
Elsewhere, gold rose about 2 per cent to around US$4,430 an ounce as investors sought safe-haven assets, while bitcoin gained roughly 1.7 per cent. Global equity markets remained firm, with Asian shares posting their strongest start to a year since 2012 and London’s FTSE 100 closing above 10,000 for the first time.
