Donald Trump has announced what he is calling a landmark deal giving the United States control over more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves. He says the agreement will more than double American oil reserves and drive down petrol prices for consumers and he claimed it was secured at no cost to the US taxpayer through a partnership with private business brokered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Under the terms disclosed so far, the US government would retain 55 per cent control of a joint venture with a private operator, granted a 100-year concession to develop 17 strategic oil fields.
Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who assumed leadership after US special forces captured Nicolás Maduro in January, described the arrangement as a “historic” deal that would help revive her country’s battered economy. She said it would run for 25 years, target crude output of 1.5 million barrels per day and attract more than 100 billion dollars in private investment alongside substantial tax revenues for Caracas, while preserving Venezuelan sovereignty over its natural resources.
Rubio called it a major win for both nations, pointing to job creation and the reconstruction of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure. Trump has separately asked US energy firms to invest at least 100 billion dollars in restoring the country’s industry, and the Wall Street Journal reported that Chevron and Halliburton were already nearing their own investment agreements there.
Analysts, however, have been notably cautious. Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, estimated at around 303 billion barrels in total but output has fallen sharply from its late-1990s peak due to tightening state control and years of US sanctions. Much of those reserves consist of heavy, sour crude, which is harder to refine and poorly suited to producing the lighter petrol that American motorists use. Energy consultancy president David Goldwyn told Reuters there was no precedent for the US government entering a lease to operate Venezuelan oil fields and questioned whether the arrangement would even be lawful under Venezuelan law. Rachel Ziemba of The Center for New American Security told the BBC that any meaningful impact on global oil supplies was unlikely within the next year.
Venezuelan opposition figures have called for greater transparency around the deal’s legal basis and what ordinary Venezuelans stand to gain from it.
