FEATURE: | Trump: US oil companies will spend the billions needed to restore Venezuela's crude output

The American Petroleum Institute, the largest US oil trade group, said on Saturday it was monitoring the emerging situation. Francisco Monaldi, Director of the Latin America Energy Program at Rice University's Baker Institute in Houston, said that Chevron is immediately positioned to benefit the most from any potential oil opening in Venezuela. Still, he said that other US oil companies will be paying close attention to political stability and wait to see how the operational environment and contract framework unfold.

"The company that probably will be very interested in going back is Conoco, because they are owed more than $10 billion, and it's unlikely that they will get paid without going back into the country," he said. Exxon could also return, but is not owed as much money, he added.

"Exxon, Conoco and Chevron, the three of them are not going to be worried about investing in heavy oil, given that it's very much needed in the United States and that they have less focus on decarbonization," Monaldi said. European companies may be more hesitant to invest in the prolific Orinoco Belt, he added.