Trump announces US deal to take control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil
President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States has signed an agreement with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of the South American nation's oil reserves.
In a social media post, Trump revealed the agreement, stating it had been negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense 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.
This announcement arrives nearly nine months after US forces, acting on Trump's orders, carried out an operation to seize Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and bring him to the United States to face federal charges related to narcoterrorism and drug trafficking.
Trump is facing growing pressure to tackle rising gas prices as the conflict with Iran approaches its six-month mark without any sign of resolution. The US has been drawing from its strategic petroleum reserves, which dipped below 300 million barrels in early August, a drop of more than 100 million barrels since the beginning of 2026.
Shortly after Maduro's removal in January, Trump had suggested the possibility of American oil companies returning to Venezuela to access its reserves. He has repeatedly claimed that Venezuela had effectively taken US oil decades earlier, when then-president Hugo Chávez nationalised hundreds of foreign-owned assets, including those belonging to American oil firms.
Venezuela possesses one of the largest oil reserves on the planet, with an estimated 303 billion barrels of crude still in the ground, roughly 17 per cent of the global supply, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Unlike many other regions where new oil deposits still need to be discovered, Venezuela's reserves are largely already mapped and well understood, according to experts. However, due to the country's crumbling infrastructure, Venezuela currently produces only about 1 per cent of the world's oil output. (with inputs from PTI)
