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Wright Previews Trump Meeting With Oil Companies on Rebuilding Venezuela's Oil Industry

January 9, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:05:37

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What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined Fox & Friends on January 9, 2026, ahead of a White House meeting that day between President Trump and major U.S. oil companies on rebuilding Venezuela’s oil industry. The program aired Trump’s statement that the companies would spend at least $100 billion rebuilding the infrastructure, as the President stated the figure, and the hosts recounted how American companies built Venezuela’s industry before it was nationalized.

Wright described twenty-five years of collapse under what he called a totalitarian socialist dictatorship, and said the administration’s blockade was now enforcing sanctions that had been in place but unenforced, giving the United States leverage and producing a Venezuelan government willing to work constructively because oil revenue depends on it, as he characterized the situation. He said the approach used military force without firing bullets or putting soldiers on the ground, and predicted lower energy prices for Americans and reduced drugs, criminality, gun running and kidnapping of American citizens.

Asked whether the President intended direct grants or subsidized loans, given the state company PDVSA’s estimate of more than $50 billion and possibly more than $100 billion to restore infrastructure, as the host stated those figures, Wright said the work would mostly be done with business capital: companies were coming because conditions on the ground had changed, no one had asked for money, and what they wanted was U.S. leverage to make operating conditions workable. He said the Export-Import Bank might provide credit support for large projects. Asked whether the U.S. might take a stake in a Venezuelan oil company, Wright said there had been no dialogue about that yet but called it a possibility if government support were needed.

Why it matters

The interview fixes how the administration said the Venezuela oil rebuild would be financed — private risk capital first, possible EXIM credit support, no grants promised — on the day the oil-company meeting took place.

Scoreboard watch

President Trump, in the clip aired in the segment, said the oil companies would spend at least $100 billion rebuilding Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, as he stated the figure. The commitment is recorded here as stated; no verdict is recorded.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Griff Jenkins on Fox and Friends - January 9, 2026”, 2026-01-09 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-01-09). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.