The legislation promises to give private companies control over the production and sale of oil and allow for independent arbitration of disputes. Workers of Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA oil company rally to back an oil reform bill proposed by acting President Delcy Rodriguez to loosen state control and open the industry to private and foreign investment in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. “Let the light shine on in the oil industry,” Ecarri said. The law was last altered two decades ago as Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, made heavy state control over the oil industry a pillar of his socialist-inspired revolution. Sanctions imposed by successive U.S. administrations further crippled the oil industry.