Trump says US will take control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves

President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States 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 agreement he said was 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.

The Venezuelan government’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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 gas 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.

The US-Israel war against Iran has led to a dramatic slowdown of Gulf oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world's petroleum passed prior to the conflict.

The average price of gas in the U.S. stood at about $4.09 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA. The average price was $3.21 at the same time last year.

Trump in his social media post Friday evening alluded to the Venezuela deal being part of a private partnership.

The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the private sector partners involved in the deal, and details on how the arrangement would work were not provided.

Persuading big American oil companies to return to the region could face headwinds given the unrest and decades of badly damaged infrastructure.

Days after the ouster of Maduro, Trump gathered oil executives at the White House and called on them to rush back into Venezuela. Executives expressed interest in the opportunity, but there was also a measure of caution given their past experience in the country.

Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, the largest US oil company, said at that moment he saw the country as “un-investable.”

But Trump has insisted that his administration has brought a measure of stability to Venezuela.

He has argued that Venezuela stole US oil when former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s moved decades ago to nationalize 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% 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% of the world’s oil.

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