Which foreign oil companies had operations seized by Venezuela during Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro administrations?

1. The headline case: ConocoPhillips and the 2007–2009 expropriations

ConocoPhillips is the clearest example in the provided reporting: the company’s stakes in three large Venezuelan joint ventures — Petrozuata, Hamaca and Corocoro — were seized by the Venezuelan state during the Chávez era, prompting long-running arbitration that culminated in enforcement actions and arbitration awards upheld as recently as January 2025 totaling about $8.7 billion plus interest ^[1]. Forbes frames this as a paradigmatic case that “reshaped how companies viewed business risks in Venezuela,” and notes U.S. legal moves to allow ConocoPhillips to pursue enforcement worldwide, including seizure of Venezuelan assets held abroad ^[1].

2. What the recent reporting focuses on: tankers and sanctions, not a catalog of seized companies

Most of the search results center on U.S. actions in December 2025 — the seizure of the VLCC Skipper, sanctions on shipping companies, and a U.S. blockade of “sanctioned” tankers — rather than cataloguing earlier nationalizations or expropriations of foreign oil companies under Chávez or Maduro ^{[2] [3] [5]}. Reuters and other outlets document the Skipper seizure and an escalation in U.S. pressure, and note that Chevron remained the only U.S. company exporting from Venezuela without delays amid the December 2025 disruptions ^{[2] [5]}.

3. Gaps in the provided sources: many historic seizures not listed here

Available sources do not list a comprehensive roster of every foreign oil company whose operations were seized across both Chávez and Maduro administrations. The supplied materials mention ConocoPhillips explicitly ^[1] but do not enumerate other foreign firms that lost assets, nor do they provide dates or legal outcomes for any additional seizures beyond shipping sanctions and the tanker interdiction narrative (not found in current reporting).

4. Context: why Venezuela expropriated oil stakes and how other countries reacted

Forbes and related analysis explain that Chávez’s government framed expropriations as sovereign reclamation of natural resources and altered how investors assessed Venezuelan political risk; international tribunals, however, later found some expropriations illegal under international law and awarded damages to claimants such as ConocoPhillips ^[1]. The December 2025 U.S. measures — seizing a vessel the U.S. says was previously involved in Iranian oil trading and sanctioning shipping entities — are portrayed as part of renewed pressure on Maduro’s government and its oil revenues ^{[2] [4]}.

5. Competing perspectives and implicit agendas in the sources

U.S. government and allied outlets emphasize legal and security rationales for targeting ships and enforcing judgments (OFAC sanctions, authorization for enforcement to recover awards) ^{[4] [1]}. Venezuelan authorities and allied countries characterize U.S. seizures and blockades as theft or “international piracy,” framing Washington’s moves as politically motivated attempts to seize Venezuelan wealth ^{[2] [6]}. Media outlets differ in tone and detail: Reuters and NYT focus on market impacts and legal rationales ^{[2] [7]}, while Treasury releases highlight sanctions designations and blocked property ^[4].

6. Takeaway and what further reporting would need to show

The provided reporting confirms ConocoPhillips as a prominent, litigated example of foreign oil assets seized by Venezuela ^[1] and documents recent U.S. maritime enforcement tied to Venezuelan oil flows ^{[2] [3]}. A definitive list of all foreign oil companies seized under Chávez and Maduro is not present in these sources; assembling such a list requires consulting historical records, arbitration databases and contemporaneous reporting beyond this set (not found in current reporting).