CARACAS: Venezuela’s parliament on Thursday begins debating plans to throw open the country’s lucrative oil sector to private investment, less than three weeks after the US ouster of Nicolas Maduro.

Until now, private companies were only allowed to operate in joint ventures with state-owned oil firm PDVSA, which insisted on holding a majority.

The bill under debate allows for “private companies domiciled in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” to engage in oil exploration and extraction.

The Trump administration is allowing China to purchase Venezuelan oil but not at “unfair, undercut” prices at which Venezuela sold the crude before the US removed its leader Nicolas Maduro, an administration official said.

“Thanks to President (Donald) Trumps decisive and successful law enforcement operation, the people of Venezuela will collect a fair price for their oil from China and other nations rather than a corrupt, cheap price,” the official said.

Oil executives and potential investors, as part of Washington’s ambitious $100 billion reconstruction plan for Venezuela’s energy industry, are demanding autonomy to produce and export oil, and receive the cash sale proceeds after Hugo Chavez’s nationalisations and assets expropriations two decades ago.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2026