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 – a key demand of President Donald Trump.

Less than three weeks after the US seized President Nicolas Maduro in an armed raid, MPs endorsed on first reading a bill allowing private companies to independently engage in oil exploration and extraction.

If adopted on a second reading, the bill would roll back decades of state controls over Venezuela’s oil sector, which were tightened by Maduro’s late mentor, socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez, in the mid-2000s.