Posted originally on CTH on January 11, 2026 | Sundance

Energy Secretary Chris Wright appears on Face the Nation to discuss the current and future plans for oil production in Venezuela, while explaining how the current mechanism to sell the oil is operating.

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: This morning, President Trump vowed that Venezuela now has the military protection of the US. This comes just one week after he said the US would run that country. Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is expected to travel to Washington to meet with President Trump this week. For his part, Mr. Trump and his team met with dozens of US oil executives late last week, urging them to commit $100 billion to boost oil production there. Joining us now to discuss it all is the United States Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, good to have you here in person.

SECRETARY CHRIS WRIGHT: Thanks for having me, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Before I ask you about Venezuela, very quickly, these protests in Iran, not this country reliant on oil to keep its government-controlled economy afloat. The President has been briefed on military options. What is the US willing to do to help?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Certainly the President has been very outspoken about wanting to have freedom and rule of law and capitalism and great relations with the United States return. So we’ll see. I think his moral support has been strong. Certainly, he’s taken a strong stance against the mullahs in Iran in disabling their nuclear program. I think the people in Iran are rising up because they feel there’s a strong America that has their back. I won’t go into the specifics there, but we wish them well, and we’d love to see a free and democratic Iran again.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Will there be more interdictions of vessels carrying Iranian oil? Any more activity on that front?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: I won’t reveal any change in position there.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, let me ask you about Venezuela,

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: where you have been very focused and very central to the President’s policy. The President said that Venezuela now has the United States, the most powerful military in the world, to protect them. To protect them, we will. Is the United States military providing security guarantees for American companies?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: We’re not doing that right now, but what we, what he means, is we’re changing the game for what’s happening in the ground in Venezuela. Venezuela has purchased $20 billion of Russian weapons. They got Cuban mercenaries there. They supply oil to Cuba. They, they harbor the Hezbollah’s headquarters for the Western Hemisphere. Venezuela has been a very dangerous, very destabilized place going down the tubes. And with the United States influence now by controlling the sale of their oil and therefore the flow of funds into the country, we think we’re going to, we will see relatively rapid change, improvement on the ground in Venezuela. This is a process. We’re only eight days into the process, but it’s off to a strong start.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, it’s off to a quick start. You had the oil executives at the White House just Friday. That the President, excuse me, the State Department yesterday had a security alert I want to ask you about because it specifically cited the risk to Americans in Venezuela, and it said armed militias are setting up roadblocks, searching vehicles for evidence of US citizenship or support for the US. The man who runs those militias is Diosdado Cabello, who is the Minister of the Interior. Is he ordering the hunting of Americans?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Not that we are aware of, but we should be cautious. Look, this is, as they say, eight days into a change into a change of leadership there. The interim authorities are trying to establish power. Collectivos have been running wild over, over Venezuela for, for over a decade. So, yeah, you’re not going to–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. Well he controls them.

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: He does.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So is he safe in his position? Because right now the administration seems to be working with him.

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: We need to work with the people that have the guns today to ultimately move the country to a representative government and a better station. But what you’ve got to prevent in the mean term is a collapse of the nation. And I think the strong moves we’re making right now is to influence the people with the guns today, which is part of a process.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And you’re not concerned he’s going to undermine the more business minded President Delcy Rodriguez?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Oh, of course we’re worried about things like that. We need to get stability among the leadership in Venezuela. So yes, of course we’re concerned about those things.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So tell me broadly, is the Trump administration’s goal here to acquire the state oil company, PDVSA, and to run it. Are you going to put Americans on the board? How is this going to work?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Well, again, it’s a process. The first thing to do is to reduce the damage to the United States, the inflow of guns and criminals and immigrants and drugs into the United States, the destabilizing of a key part of the Western Hemisphere. We need to stop that. That’s why we’ve entered into Venezuela. Certainly, part of the way to improve Venezuela and to improve the Western Hemisphere and improve the lives of Americans is to get their very corrupt 25 years in decline, oil industry back going again.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Does that mean the United States government is going to run it? The president says we’re going to run the country. Are we running this as like as an American state owned oil company essentially?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: No. Today we are running the sale of their crudes. You know, we have a quarantine around their ability to ship oil outside of Venezuela. All of that goes through American crude marketers, and then that crude goes out into the market. We collect those funds and bring them back to Venezuela to better the lives of Americans and Venezuelans. But in the long run, what will happen with Venezuelan oil resources? Yeah, of course, quite likely you’ll see American companies’ expanded presence there. You’ll see growing production. Of course, you’re going to see more American involvement in there. But exactly how that’s going to work, that’s going to unfold over time.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So back in November, us, Judge backed a bid by an American hedge fund to purchase Citgo Petroleum. The Treasury still has to approve that deal. The hedge fund is actually run by a big Trump donor, Paul Singer. Do you want to preserve Venezuelan ownership of Citgo? Do you want to have America have a financial stake in it, like Trump bought a big portion of an intel company, do you want to own portions of oil companies?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Again, that’s going to be up to American businesses. That’s certainly a very real possibility. The Citgo sale is part of, is part of bringing redress to creditors of the United States for the Venezuelan Government. And of course, one, one of the capital providers in that transaction is a hedge fund provider you just mentioned. There’s lots of American investors and American refining entrepreneurs that are involved in that so to take Venezuelan owned refineries that are in the United States and legally through an auction process, transfer them to American owners and American entrepreneurs in the refining business. I think that’s fantastic.

MARGARET BRENNAN: There’s concern about corruption here, though. Will there be Americans installed on these boards? And how do you respond to these allegations that some Trump donors are going to get preferential treatment?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: I can assure you that is absolutely not the case. Absolutely not the case. Think of what President Trump has done for the American oil and gas industry. He’s driven down the price of oil. He’s dramatically reduced–

MARGARET BRENNAN: There’s an over supply of oil. And now you’re going to put more on the market.

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Exactly. That’s not- That’s not good for American oil and gas companies.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Because it makes it less profitable for them to actually go and invest in drill, baby, drill.

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Exactly. Democrats and President Biden are fantastic for American oil and gas companies because they try to restrict the supply to something that’s essential to life, which only has one possible impact, which is to drive up prices and grow profitability. So President Trump is no, is no helper to the oil and gas industry. And certainly there’s no corruption, preferential placement of people. There’s none of that. I can assure you of that. I’m in the center of this.

MARGARET BRENNAN: How are you going to decide the contracts? Is the Treasury going to approve the Citgo dominance there in that–

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: That went through a large auction to buy it.

MARGARET BRENNAN

Are you going to brief to Congress the decisions you’re making about which firms get access?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Absolutely. All that was an auction open to all American firms. There were many bidders, including the coalition of bidders you mentioned. We want those assets to get as much money as possible, to go back to the creditors of the Venezuelan Government. And we want American refinery assets owned by Americans that are going to increase the throughput, drive down the price of gasoline in America.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. So Secretary Rubio said there’s a three point plan, stabilize, rehabilitate, transition. This sounds indefinite, even when you heard some of those oil executives, Chevron’s leadership, they’re already in Venezuela, we should say, said it will take 18 to 24 months to even increase oil production by 50%. So how long is this American involvement? Because he’s saying there, it’s at least a year and a half, two years.

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: They’ve been there for 100 years, and likely, Chevron’s going to be there 50 years from now.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But the United States government, how long does that role continue?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: You heard the third part of Rubio’s question, which is transition. We want to bring a representative government to the people of Venezuela. I think then you’ll see the full sovereignty back to the government of Venezuela. We don’t have a legitimate government of Venezuela today. We’d like to move and get there, but America–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Is there a timeline?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: 25 years, this country has gone in decline. President Trump out of the box, creative intervention has allowed us to change the game. But, yeah, I don’t know the timeline of that. It’s not weeks, it’s more months. Could be a year or two could be more.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Secretary Wright, thank you for your time today.

[END TRANSCRIPT]