Venezuela’s legislature opened debate Thursday on a bill to loosen state control over the country's vast oil sector in the first major overhaul since the late socialist leader Hugo Chávez nationalized parts of the industry in 2007.

Venezuelan lawmakers on Thursday gave their initial backing to plans to throw open the oil sector to private investors, paving the way for the return of US energy majors --

President Donald Trump is trying to turn the world's largest proven crude reserves into a geopolitical and financial windfall, promising that "a lot of money is going to be made" as United States companies move into Venezuela's battered oil patch.

The Trump ‌administration ​is allowing China to purchase ‌Venezuelan oil but not at "unfair, undercut" prices at which Caracas ​sold the crude before the U.S. removed President Nicolas Maduro, a U.S.

President Trump used tariffs and now Venezuelan oil to drive down oil prices and keep pump prices low. For Texas, low oil prices brought layoffs and idle rigs.

President Trump tapped a foreign policy adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the United States’s top diplomat in Venezuela as the administration looks to control the country’s oil industry following its capture of Venezuela’s leader,

The US says it will control the Latin American nation's oil sales indefinitely after seizing its leader The Trump administration is allowing China to purchase Venezuelan oil but not at "unfair, undercut" prices at which Caracas sold the crude before the US removed President Nicolas Maduro,

The Trump administration has no plans to provide oil companies potentially heading back into Venezuela with security guarantees, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said.