By Ryan Dubé and Kejal Vyas
CARACAS, Venezuela -- The country's interim government unveiled a bill Thursday to loosen the state's iron-tight control over its beleaguered oil industry, a move aimed at attracting U.S. energy companies but one that analysts say falls short of what is needed to unlock major new investments and revive output as President Trump has demanded.
Since the Jan. 3 raid in which U.S. commandos removed strongman Nicolás Maduro from power, President Trump has pressed American producers to quickly pour $100 billion into Venezuela, where only Chevron has a license permitting it to operate. The president hopes to lower U.S. oil prices to $50 a barrel, lowering gasoline at the pump in an election year.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez's hydrocarbons bill, which is expected to be approved next week by Venezuela's National Assembly, would give companies more autonomy to operate oil fields and export crude under contracts with state oil firm Petróleos de Venezuela, or PdVSA.
The proposal would codify into law the opaque oil deals, known as productive participation contracts, that Maduro implemented to circumvent U.S. sanctions on the oil industry, oil analysts say. It would keep a 30% royalty but permit the government to reduce it to 15% in some joint ventures. The bill permits independent arbitration to resolve disputes but doesn't specify whether it would be conducted abroad, a longtime demand of investors who saw Venezuela's leftist government in the past nationalize oil projects held by foreign companies
While the reform is a step toward easing state control over the country's vital industry, oil experts say it doesn't go far enough to provide legal certainty for companies to commit the tens of billions of dollars required to jump-start production, which collapsed over the past decade.
In addition, the changes are advanced by a government that the U.S. and its allies consider illegitimate, citing rigged elections Maduro said he won in 2018 and 2024 -- a further deterrent for investors worried about the country's legal safeguards, analysts said.
"It is a very deficient law," said Francisco Monaldi, a Venezuelan who directs the Latin America energy program at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. "It continues to give tremendous discretion to the executive," he said, referring to Venezuela's president.
Trump has said American oil companies would spend billions in Venezuela to bring back production that had cratered under Maduro. The industry will extract "tremendous wealth out of the ground," Trump said after Maduro's capture, with revenues returned to Venezuela to benefit the people, skirting corrupt officials. He has framed the approach as undoing the nationalization of the oil industry carried out by Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chávez.
"We're going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago," he said. Trump has also said the U.S. would control Venezuela's oil sales indefinitely.
The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
This week, Venezuelan officials said they had received an initial $300 million in proceeds from the U.S., which took control of 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil earlier this month to sell on the open market.
Oil companies say a far broader overhaul of Venezuela's legal and commercial framework is needed before pouring billions of dollars into the country.
Exxon CEO Darren Woods said at a White House event with Trump and other oil executives that Venezuela was currently "uninvestable" without such changes.
Companies have also said they need security guarantees in the nation, where roaming armed gangs and Colombian narco-trafficking insurgencies operate. On Thursday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Bloomberg Television that the U.S. wouldn't provide on-the-ground security to oil companies.
"Oil-and-gas companies operate all around the world in all different settings," Wright said. "They're well versed in those challenges."
Venezuela's oil production collapsed under Maduro, as his regime turned the national oil company into a political tool and oversaw deep mismanagement and corruption. Production topped three million barrels a day before the start of Chavismo in 1999 -- the movement Chávez had founded with his election -- but had fallen to 300,000 barrels in 2020. Output rebounded to about 900,000 barrels daily last year, according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Venezuela's current oil law prohibits private companies from independently exploring, producing and exporting. They work through joint ventures in which PdVSA holds a majority stake.
To circumvent legal restrictions and U.S. sanctions, the government used a so-called antiblockade law approved in 2020, which effectively gave the state the ability to sign deals in private without legislative oversight. As Maduro's vice president and de facto economy manager, Rodríguez, now the country's acting-president, had overseen oil industry maneuvers in recent years.
The hydrocarbons bill comes as authorities in Venezuela's interim government and the U.S. moved to restore diplomatic and commercial ties that have been strained for several years.
On Thursday, the U.S. named Laura F. Dogu, a former ambassador to Honduras and Nicaragua, as the new chargé d'affaires for the State Department's Venezuela Affairs Unit, which is based in Bogotá, Colombia. U.S. diplomatic teams have in recent days been working in Caracas toward an eventual reopening of the embassy, which has been closed since 2019, according to officials from both countries.
Thursday's proposal gives some legal security for foreign companies already working in Venezuela, but is unlikely to provide the guarantees necessary to attract new players, said Orlando Ochoa, a Venezuelan economist and fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
The modifications, though, are likely to assuage some fears among Venezuelans that the U.S. would take over the country's most prized assets.
"There's no visible interference by U.S. interests in this bill," said Ochoa. "It's in line with what the Venezuelans have discussed for years to allow for development of new and mature fields."
Jose Ignacio Hernandez, a Venezuelan lawyer and professor at American University, said Washington may push Rodríguez to make further changes once it becomes clear the reform won't draw significant new investments.
"I hope the United States government, when it realizes that this is not enough, will push for a better reform," he said. "All investments need a clear, simple, stable and predictable framework and regrettably this is not the regulatory reform that is so far introduced in this legislation."
Write to Ryan Dubé at ryan.dube@wsj.com and Kejal Vyas at kejal.vyas@wsj.com
Watch: WSJ Reporter Explains Why Venezuelan Oil Won't Flood Markets Anytime Soon
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 22, 2026 17:48 ET (22:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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