Rodríguez proposed the changes in the days after US President Donald Trump said his administration would take control of Venezuela’s oil exports and revitalize the ailing industry by luring foreign investment. Rodríguez’s government expects the changes to serve as assurances for major US oil companies that have so far hesitated about returning to the volatile country. “Let the light shine on in the oil industry,” Ecarri said. In tearing up the contracts that foreign companies signed in the 1990s, Chávez nationalized huge assets belonging to American and other Western firms that refused to comply, including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. Sanctions imposed by successive U.S. administrations further crippled the oil industry.