Crude oil prices dipped on Sunday amid uncertainty over Venezuela following the Trump administration’s ouster of President Nicolás Maduro.

United States crude dropped 31 cents, or 0.54 per cent, to $57.01 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent fell 22 cents, or 0.36 per cent, to $60.53 per barrel.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump emphasized that securing U.S. investment in Venezuela’s oil sector is a central goal of the regime change that removed Maduro from power.

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies — the biggest anywhere in the world — go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure,” Trump said in a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.

He added that the U.S. embargo on Venezuelan oil remains in effect.

Venezuela, a founding OPEC member, holds the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, 303 billion barrels, or roughly 17 per cent of the global total, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

At its peak in the late 1990s, Caracas produced around 3.5 million barrels per day, but output has dropped sharply since then.

Data from energy consultancy Kpler shows the country is now producing about 800,000 bpd.

Chevron is currently the only U.S. oil major operating in Venezuela, exporting roughly 140,000 barrels per day by the end of Q4 2025, according to Kpler.