Corporate Lobbying and the US Attack on Venezuela
Over the past year, corporate actors who stand to benefit from US-backed regime change in Venezuela spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying the Trump administration, including over their economic access to the resource-rich nation.
Oil and gas giants Shell, Phillips 66, and Chevron noted in disclosures covering the first three-quarters of 2025 that they lobbied the Treasury Department regarding Venezuelan sanctions. (Peter Boer / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In the year leading up to the Trump administration’s invasion of Venezuela, corporate actors who stand to benefit from United States–backed regime change in the country — including fossil fuel magnates, international creditors, and cryptocurrency firms — spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying the Trump administration on Venezuela, including over their economic access to the resource-rich nation.
Oil and gas giants Shell, Phillips 66, and Chevron noted in disclosures covering the first three-quarters of 2025 that they lobbied the Treasury Department regarding Venezuelan sanctions or licenses issued by its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). OFAC licenses serve as lucrative business waivers that circumvent US-imposed economic sanctions.
Chevron is currently the only US-based holder of a general waiver granting the fossil fuel firm permission to broadly operate in Venezuela’s vast oil fields, which represent about 17 percent of world’s global supply.
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