The United States has announced that it has secured control of a substantial portion of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, after President Donald Trump pledged to “take back” the South American country’s energy resources. On Friday, Trump announced that his government and that of Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez had reached a deal to give the US majority control over more than 65 billion barrels’ worth of proven oil reserves. But the deal will involve 17 strategic oil fields in Venezuela.
The US government has said it will partner with a private business to extract the fuel. What has been said so far, and what could the new deal mean for US-Venezuela relations? We answer those questions and more in this explainer.
The deal reportedly involves 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves. That amounts to roughly a fifth of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves. As of 2023, the US government estimates that Venezuela has 303 billion barrels of oil reserves, the largest known deposit in the world.
Approximately 17 percent of the world’s oil supply is estimated to be in the South American country. But some analysts have questioned the 65-billion-barrel total Trump announced. With no fixed terms released, there has been speculation that Trump may have made a splashy announcement to help jumpstart the US economy.
Government estimates indicate that proven US oil reserves are declining, standing at approximately 46 billion barrels by the end of 2024. The US government also operates a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency supply of oil to help ensure steady domestic supplies. But the emergency stockpile is shrinking, with only 289.7 million barrels in storage facilities designed to hold up to 714 million barrels.
Trump has indicated that Friday’s deal will help restore the US oil reserves, which have hit their lowest levels since 1982. The year 2026 has seen dramatic changes for Venezuela and its relationship with the US. Since 2013, the South American country had been led by socialist President Nicolas Maduro, whose tenure had been defined by a series of disputed elections and crackdowns on political dissent.
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