Venezuela Oil Deal Could Bring Profits to Wall Street Banks and Bond Investors

A US deal to exploit Venezuela’s vast oil reserves could create gains well beyond the petroleum companies operating in or preparing to enter the country. Large Wall Street banks and investors who held Venezuelan debt may also stand to benefit.

The banks named include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, along with HSBC, Barclays, Mizuho, Mitsubishi UFJ and Deutsche Bank. Since 2021, these institutions have financed companies that could benefit from a change in Venezuela’s leadership and a broader opening of the oil sector.

Chevron, Valero, PBF Energy, Citgo and Phillips 66 have major activities around the Gulf of Mexico and can process Venezuelan crude. Data from a Stand.earth report, cited by Common Dreams, show that the companies received more than $120 billion in financing. Valero, PBF Energy, Citgo and Phillips 66 received more than $40 billion from major banks over five years.

ExxonMobil could also gain, despite reservations its chief executive, Darren Woods, expressed earlier in the year about calls from Donald Trump to begin operations in Venezuela after the US capture of Nicolás Maduro. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips have pending arbitration cases against Venezuela over the government’s 2007 nationalisation of oil assets. The cases could award them $20 billion and $12 billion, respectively.

The same data show that ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips received more than $12 billion in investment from major financial institutions in 2025, well above earlier years. A change in Venezuela could also reward investors who held the country’s debt for years. Fidelity and T. Rowe Price still hold Venezuelan government bonds worth tens of billions of dollars. US investors once held about $50 billion of the country’s debt before many sold or wrote down losses after the first Trump administration isolated Venezuela through sanctions. Some long-term investors retained their holdings, betting they could eventually recover part of their value.