Donald Trump says US struck Venezuela deal to take control of 65 billion barrels of oil reserves

US President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States had entered into an agreement with Venezuela that would give it control over 65 billion barrels of the South American countrys oil reservesTrump announced the agreement in a social media post saying it had been negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuelas interim President Delcy RodriguezThe 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 BREAKING NEWS The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY President Donald J Trump pictwittercomAsQqX3Y0symdash The White House WhiteHouse August 28 2026The Venezuelan governments press office did not immediately respond to a request for commentDeal announced amid pressure over rising fuel pricesThe announcement comes nearly nine months after the US military acting on Trumps direction carried out an operation to capture Venezuelas president Nicolas Maduro and take him to the United States to face federal narcoterrorism and drug trafficking chargesTrump is also facing mounting pressure to address rising gasoline prices as the war in Iran reached its sixmonth mark on Friday with no end in sight The United States has drawn down its Strategic Petroleum Reserve which fell below 300 million barrels in early August a decline of more than 100 million barrels since the beginning of 2026The USIsrael war against Iran has also sharply reduced the volume of Gulf oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz Before the conflict about 20 per cent of the worlds petroleum passed through the strategically important waterwayThe average price of gasoline in the United States stood at about USD 409 a gallon on Friday according to AAA compared with USD 321 a gallon at the same time last yearDetails of private sector involvement remain unclearTrump suggested in his Friday evening social media post that the Venezuela agreement could involve a privatesector partnership However the White House did not immediately respond to questions about which companies would be involved or how the arrangement would operateThe proposal to bring major American oil companies back into Venezuela could face significant challenges including decades of neglected and damaged oil infrastructureDays after Maduros ouster Trump met oil executives at the White House and urged them to move quickly to return to Venezuela While executives expressed interest in potential opportunities some also voiced caution because of their previous experiences in the countryDarren Woods CEO of ExxonMobil the largest US oil company said at the time that he considered Venezuela uninvestableTrump points to political changes in VenezuelaTrump however has argued that his administration has helped bring greater stability to Venezuela and could create conditions for renewed investmentHe has also maintained that Venezuela took control of American oil interests when former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez moved decades ago to nationalise hundreds of foreignowned assets including properties held by US oil companiesRodriguez in one of her early moves after taking power signed a law opening the countrys oil sector to privatisation reversing a longstanding principle of the socialist movement that had governed Venezuela for more than two decadesRubio predicts major investment and lower US fuel pricesRubio said in a post on X that the agreement would bring USD 100 billion in private investment to Venezuela and contribute to lower gasoline prices in the United StatesThis deal is a huge win for both the American and Venezuelan people Rubio postedThe scale of the proposed investment and the timeline for its implementation were not immediately clearVenezuela holds some of the worlds largest crude reservesVenezuela has some of the worlds largest oil reserves with an estimated 303 billion barrels of crude oil in the ground That accounts for about 17 per cent of the worlds known supply according to the US Energy Information AdministrationUnlike in many other parts of the world where geologists must search for previously undiscovered oil deposits much of Venezuelas oil reserves are already mapped and known experts sayHowever years of underinvestment and deteriorating infrastructure have limited the countrys production capacity Despite its vast reserves Venezuela currently produces only about 1 per cent of the worlds oilWith inputs from Associated Press