President Donald Trump hinted Monday night that the United States government might reimburse oil companies that help to rebuild Venezuela's aging oil infrastructure. 

The president predicted it would take less than 18 months to rebuild the country's oil infrastructure, but warned that doing so could cost a heavy price tag.

The comment comes after Trump indicated Saturday that American oil companies would help Venezuela rebuild its oil infrastructure, which is expected to bring in revenue for the Latin American country.

"I think we can do it in less time than that, but it’ll be a lot of money," Trump told NBC News on Monday. "A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent, and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us, or through revenue."

The president declined to speculate on how much it would cost oil companies or the federal government, but said it would be a "very substantial amount of money." Oil companies have not indicated so far whether they intend to foot the bill in the interim.

Trump also denied that he briefed oil companies before American troops arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in his country over the weekend, but said the companies knew it was an idea the administration was floating. 

"We’ve been talking to the concept of, 'what if we did it?'" Trump told the outlet. "The oil companies were absolutely aware that we were thinking about doing something. But we didn’t tell them we were going to do it."

Chevron is the only remaining major U.S. oil company in Venezuela. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.