US President Donald Trump on Friday announced what he described as an agreement with Venezuela that would give the United States control over 65 billion barrels of the South American country’s oil reserves. Trump said the deal was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez, and he announced it in a social media post, calling it “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!”
The announcement follows a U.S. military operation nearly nine months earlier, ordered by Trump, that led to the capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and his transfer to the United States to face federal charges related to narcoterrorism and drug trafficking. Trump had publicly discussed bringing U.S. oil companies back to Venezuela shortly after Maduro’s removal in January.
Domestically, the timing is notable: the administration is under pressure from high petrol prices, and the war in Iran has entered its sixth month with continuing uncertainty over global energy supplies. The U.S. has already drawn on its strategic petroleum reserve to ease market pressure; the stockpile fell below 300 million barrels in early August, a decline of more than 100 million barrels since the start of 2026, the announcement noted.
Trump has also accused Venezuela of seizing U.S. oil after former President Hugo Chávez nationalized hundreds of foreign-owned assets, including those of American companies. The new agreement, as presented by the president, would mark a dramatic reversal of that era of nationalization-if implemented as described.
Venezuela is estimated to hold about 303 billion barrels of crude oil, making it one of the world’s largest holders of proven reserves-roughly 17% of global reserves by the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s measure cited in the report. Much of that oil is already mapped, reducing exploration needs, but decades of underinvestment and mismanagement have left the country’s production infrastructure badly deteriorated.
As a result of those problems, Venezuela currently produces only about 1% of the world’s oil despite its vast reserves. The source material does not detail the legal, operational or financial mechanisms that would transfer control of the 65 billion barrels to the United States, nor does it include responses from Venezuelan officials beyond the mention of interim president Delcy Rodriguez’s involvement in negotiations.
Original Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/biggest-deal-in-history-trump-says-us-to-control-65-billion-barrels-of-venezuela-oil/articleshow/133601750.cms
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Publish Date: 2026-08-29 04:52:00
