American President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that an agreement had been reached between the United States and Venezuela. According to this agreement, the American side will gain control over approximately 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves. Trump shared this deal in a social media post, calling it the largest oil deal in world history.
According to Trump, this agreement was the result of negotiations between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and the current head of state of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez.
This announcement comes at a time when, under Trump's orders, American military forces were conducting an operation to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and bring him to the US. The goal of this operation was to charge him with federal crimes of drug terrorism and drug trafficking.
Pressure on President Trump is increasing due to rising gas prices in America. The war in Iran has been ongoing for about six months, and there are no signs of its imminent end. Under these conditions, the US utilized its strategic petroleum reserves, which held less than 300 million barrels at the beginning of August.
After Maduro's overthrow in January, Trump spoke about the need for American oil companies to return to Venezuela and utilize local reserves. He claimed that Venezuela had stolen American oil when former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez nationalized hundreds of foreign assets decades ago, including property belonging to American oil corporations.
Venezuela possesses one of the world's largest oil fields, containing about 303 billion barrels of crude oil underground. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, this accounts for approximately 17% of global production. Experts note that, unlike in other regions of the world where geologists must search for oil, Venezuela's reserves are largely studied. However, due to poor infrastructure, the country produces only about 1% of the world's oil volume.