FACTBOX: Venezuela's oil and mining sectors: large potential, weak infrastructure

Venezuela, whose President Nicolas Maduro was captured by U.S. forces on Saturday according to U.S. President Donald Trump, is known for its vast oil and mineral wealth. However, decades of mismanagement, underinvestment, and sanctions have left the country’s energy and mining sectors struggling. Here are the key facts about Venezuela’s reserves, production, and exports.

Reserves

Venezuela holds the world’s largest estimated oil reserves, yet its crude output is only a fraction of its capacity. Official data shows the country has about 303 billion barrels, representing roughly 17% of global reserves—more than OPEC leader Saudi Arabia, according to the London-based Energy Institute.

Most of Venezuela’s reserves consist of heavy oil in the Orinoco region, which is expensive to produce but technically straightforward, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

In 2019, Maduro and then-Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, now acting president, announced a five-year mining plan to increase mineral extraction as an alternative to oil production. The year prior, the government released a report on mineral deposits, though the use of terms like “reserve” and “resource” interchangeably made it difficult to assess the country’s true mining potential.

A reserve estimates the volume of a mineral that can be economically produced.

A resource refers to the total volume in a region, regardless of economic feasibility.

The 2018 “minerals catalog” for investors estimated:

Coal reserves: roughly 3 billion metric tons

Nickel reserves: 407,885 metric tons

Gold resource: 644 metric tons

Iron ore resource: 14.68 billion metric tons

Bauxite resource: 321.5 million metric tons

A 2021 map of mineral reserves, based on 2009 data, also listed antimony, copper, nickel, coltan, molybdenum, magnesium, silver, zinc, titanium, tungsten, and uranium, though volumes were not provided. Venezuela does not appear to hold significant rare earths, a group of 17 minor metals used in advanced technologies.

Production

Venezuela was a founding member of OPEC and once produced up to 3.5 million barrels of crude per day in the 1970s, representing over 7% of global output. By the 2010s, production fell below 2 million barrels per day and averaged around 1.1 million barrels per day last year, roughly equal to production in North Dakota.

“The full recovery of Venezuelan oil production would take time, even if there is a genuine regime change,” said Arne Lohmann Rasmussen of Global Risk Management. MST Marquee analyst Saul Kavonic noted that exports could grow if sanctions are lifted and foreign investment returns. However, Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy, warned that forced regime change rarely stabilizes oil supply quickly, citing Libya and Iraq as examples.

The status of mines under Maduro’s five-year plan remains unclear. The National Council for Productive Economy reported growth in gold, coal, and iron ore production in the first three quarters of 2025 but did not provide figures. Venezuela nationalized its gold sector in 2011 and controls iron and steel producer CVG.

Coal production has resumed, with government plans to export over 10 million metric tons in 2025, though it is unclear whether that target was met. Much of Venezuela’s mineral production, including nickel, bauxite, iron ore, and gold, has declined alongside oil over the past decade.

Joint Ventures

Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in the 1970s, creating Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA). In the 1990s, the country partially opened the sector to foreign investment. After Hugo Chavez took office in 1999, all projects were required to have majority PDVSA ownership. Exxon and Conoco left the country in the 2000s, and their assets were expropriated.

PDVSA partnered with Chevron, China National Petroleum Corporation, ENI, Total, and Russia’s Rosneft to boost production. In 2023, Maduro threatened to license mines in disputed areas along the border with Guyana. Since at least 2016, his government has supported artisanal gold mining in the Amazon to generate revenue.

Exports and Refining

The United States was once Venezuela’s main oil customer, but sanctions have shifted exports primarily to China over the past decade. Venezuela owes roughly $10 billion to China and repays loans with crude shipped on three very large crude carriers, previously co-owned by the two countries.

Two of the supertankers were en route to Venezuela in December when Trump announced a blockade of all tankers entering or leaving the country. Exports have since mostly halted. Russia has also loaned Venezuela billions, though exact figures are unclear.

PDVSA owns significant refining capacity abroad, including CITGO in the United States, though creditors are engaged in legal battles to gain control of these assets.

-Reporting by Marianna Parraga, Arathy Somasekhar, Dmitry Zhdannikov, Ernest Scheyder, and Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Jason Neely and Stephen Coates/Reuters