'We've received over 80 mn oil barrels from Venezuela': Trump in State of the Union address, says American oil production at 'all time high'

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that the US has received more than 80 million barrels of oil from Venezuela. This far exceeds what the Trump administration initially projected after the US military captured the former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro following a raid in Caracas last month.

"As thousands of new businesses are forming in factories, plants, and laboratories are being built, we have added 70,000 new construction jobs in just a very short period of time. It's getting bigger and bigger and stronger. American oil production is up by more than  600,000 barrels a day, and we just received from our new friend and partner, Venezuela, more than 80 million barrels of oil," he said at the annual State of the Union (SOTU) address.

At present, the Venezuelan oil industry produces approximately 1 million barrels per day. Soon after Maduro was captured and taken to New York to face drug trafficking charges, Trump vowed to turn around Venezuela's struggling oil industry.

Venezuela's oil production has been severely crippled by US sanctions, reducing it to around 1 per cent of the global output. The US imposed sanctions on Venezuela to curb corruption and human rights abuses under Maduro's regime.

In January, Trump organised a meeting with US oil company executives to discuss oil production in Venezuela. Representatives of Exxon, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips attended the meeting.

During this meeting, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said that the Latin American country is "uninvestable" in its present state.

Woods said at the time, "If you look at the commercial constructs, frameworks in place in Venezuela today, it's uninvestable. Significant changes have to be made to these frameworks and the legal system. There has to be durable investment protections and change to the hydrocarbon laws."

Back to the SOTU address, Trump further noted that American oil and natural gas production is at an "all-time high" as he kept his promise to "drill, baby, drill."

As per the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), American crude oil production averaged around 12.9 million barrels per day in 2023 and grew to roughly 13.2 million barrels per day in 2025. In late 2025, crude oil production in the US oscillated between 13.2 and 13.8 million barrels per day.