The United States and Venezuela reached a historic agreement Friday giving Washington control of more than 65 billion barrels of oil reserves, a deal that doubles America's reserves at no cost to taxpayers.
President Donald Trump announced Friday night that the United States has reached a sweeping agreement with Venezuela to secure majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of the South American nation's oil reserves. Trump called the pact the biggest oil deal in world history, and his administration says it will more than double America's total oil reserves at no cost to U.S. taxpayers.
The agreement lands at a critical moment. Gas prices have climbed roughly 27 percent over the past year, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve sits at levels not seen since the 1980s, and the U.S. war with Iran has choked transit through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for global crude. The White House says the Venezuela deal will increase oil supply and ease pressure at the pump while locking in long-term American access to the world's largest proven crude reserves.
The deal was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodriguez. Under the terms, the United States will partner with a private operator in Venezuela to create a new company that takes control of the reserves, according to a U.S. official familiar with the contours of the agreement.
Rodriguez's government said the deal covers the development of 17 oil fields with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels. The arrangement could draw up to $100 billion in investment into Venezuela's oil industry and yield more than $209 billion in tax revenue for Caracas over the life of the agreement.
The United States would hold an effective 55 percent output stake in the new company, including an ownership position and the right to buy oil at cost. The company would become the second-largest corporate holder of proven reserves in the world, trailing only Saudi Aramco. Rodriguez has granted the entity 100-year rights to develop the fields, with the heaviest concentration of activity in the Orinoco Belt and the Lake Maracaibo basin.
American drivers have felt the squeeze at the pump all summer. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline hit roughly $4.09 on Friday, up about 27 percent from a year ago, even as crude prices slipped this week following weeks of war-driven gains.
The conflict with Iran has been the biggest driver. West Texas Intermediate crude has jumped more than 24 percent since the war began, and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed from around 100 crossings a day a year ago to just a handful, tightening global supplies. At the same time, oil volumes in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have fallen to lows not seen since the 1980s, leaving the country with a thinner emergency cushion than at any point in four decades.
The Venezuela agreement changes that math. Venezuela sits on an estimated 303 billion barrels of proven crude reserves, more than Saudi Arabia's 268 billion and Iran's 208 billion. Tapping into that supply gives Washington a reliable, hemisphere-close source of oil that does not depend on chokepoints like Hormuz or on the goodwill of foreign rivals. Administration officials see the deal as a direct answer to energy inflation and a hedge against future supply shocks.
The deal follows the January special operations raid on Caracas that captured then-president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Since then, Venezuela has been led by Rodriguez, Maduro's former vice president and petroleum minister, who has steered the country through a rocky transition and freed hundreds of political prisoners.
Trump has praised Rodriguez's leadership, telling reporters last month that she is doing a fantastic job. The president has framed the oil agreement as the centerpiece of a broader effort to reassert American influence across Latin America, a strategy that counteracts the growing footprint of China and Russia in the region while opening Venezuela's economy to American capital and expertise.
Some Venezuelan opposition figures have grumbled about the scale of the American stake, calling it a land grab and urging the interim government to reject it. But backers of the deal note that the country's oil industry, hollowed out by years of mismanagement and sanctions, desperately needs foreign investment to rebuild. The $100 billion in projected investment and the revival of the country's energy sector are the clearest path back to economic recovery for a nation that has suffered one of the worst economic collapses in modern history.
The agreement still faces implementation hurdles. The new private company must be stood up, the 17 fields must be brought back online, and Venezuela's supreme court, still dominated by Maduro-era appointees, will likely weigh in on the legality of the arrangement. No date has been set for fresh presidential elections in Venezuela, though Washington says democracy will come in time.
For American consumers, the near-term question is whether the deal can move the needle on prices before the midterm elections. The White House expects additional supply to flow as fields are rehabilitated, and officials point out that the agreement itself cost taxpayers nothing while handing the United States a controlling stake in one of the world's largest oil endowments.
The Venezuela oil deal is a defining moment in Trump's energy and foreign policy agenda. If it delivers, the United States walks away with a doubled reserve base, a new source of affordable crude, and a strategic foothold in South America that locks out rivals for a century. That is the kind of outcome that reshapes the global energy map, and the stakes could not be higher.
The United States and Venezuela reached a historic agreement Friday giving Washington control of more than 65 billion barrels of oil reserves, a deal that doubles America's reserves at no cost to taxpayers.
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