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Washington: President Donald Trump says the US has entered into an agreement with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of the South American country’s oil reserves.
Trump, in a social media post, announced the deal he said was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez.
“The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on, THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!” Trump wrote.
The announcement of the deal comes nearly nine months after the US military, at Trump’s direction, carried out an operation to capture Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro and spirit him to the United States to face federal narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges.
Trump faces mounting pressure to address high petrol prices as the war in Iran reaches a six-month milestone with no conclusion in sight.
The US has tapped its strategic petroleum reserves, which in early August fell below 300 million barrels, down by more than 100 million barrels since the start of 2026.
In the days following Maduro’s removal in January, Trump floated the idea of US oil companies returning to Venezuela to tap its oil reserves. Trump has argued that Venezuela stole US oil when former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez moved decades ago to nationalise hundreds of foreign-owned assets, including those owned by American oil companies.
Venezuela has one of the largest oil reserves in the world, with an estimated 303 billion barrels of crude oil in the ground. That’s about 17 per cent of the world’s supply, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Unlike other parts of the world, where geologists have to search for untapped oil, the reserves under Venezuela’s soil are largely mapped and known, experts say. But because of dilapidated infrastructure, the country only produces about 1 per cent of the world’s oil.
The US and Venezuela have agreed to a deal that would give the American government a major stake in Venezuela’s oil reserves, President Donald Trump said Friday.
“At my direction, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, working closely with Highly Respected Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, and, through a partnership with private business, have secured majority US control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer,” Trump said in a post on social media.
The announcement comes amid a worldwide scramble to secure oil supplies disrupted by the war in Iran, and as Trump confronts voter concerns about fuel prices and inflation ahead of the November midterm elections.
Bloomberg previously reported that the US was pursuing a major stake in Venezuelan oil reserves via a potential partnership between the Department of Defence and Alejandro Betancourt, a controversial energy investor who has become a key middleman between the two countries.
The negotiations focused on as many as 17 oil fields spanning Venezuela’s main petroleum basins, according to people familiar with the matter.
AP, Bloomberg
