Trump Announces Venezuela Oil Deal for 65 Billion Barrels
Trump: the US and Venezuela signed a deal to develop 17 oil fields holding 65 billion barrels in reserves, with majority American control and the right to buy oil at cost.
Donald Trump announced on the evening of Friday, August 28, that the United States has signed a deal with Venezuela that gives it a majority stake in developing 65 billion barrels of the country’s proven oil reserves. The news might seem far removed from Belgrade, but shifts in the global crude oil market tend to work their way into fuel prices in Serbia too, since the country imports most of the oil it uses. A supply change of this size eventually shows up in the math at local pumps, even if with a delay.
Trump announced the deal on social media, briefly and without details on the text of the agreement.
“The United States of America has just signed a Deal with the Country of Venezuela on the BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!”
According to Trump, negotiations on the American side were led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth, whose title ABC News lists as secretary of war, while other outlets still refer to him as secretary of defense. On Venezuela’s side, the deal was signed by acting president Delcy Rodriguez.
What the deal actually covers
According to a statement from Rodriguez’s government, the agreement covers the development of 17 oil fields with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels. Rights to the fields go to a newly formed private company, which Venezuela has granted a 100-year concession. The operator’s name has not been disclosed yet, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The United States would receive 55 percent of the new company’s effective output, according to those same claims, through an equity stake and the right to buy oil at cost. The oil purchased that way would go toward replenishing US strategic reserves and covering military needs, the official said. Trump insists the deal will not cost American taxpayers a single cent:
“Majority American Control over more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven oil reserves in Venezuela, at no cost whatsoever to the American taxpayer.”
Rodriguez’s government estimates the deal would bring $100 billion in investment into Venezuela’s oil industry and more than $209 billion in tax revenue for Caracas. Based on proven reserves, the new company would become the world’s second largest corporate oil holder, right behind Saudi Arabia’s Aramco.
How long has it really been since Maduro’s arrest
The American wire service AP, in a story carried by Boston.com, describes the announcement as coming “nearly nine months” after the arrest of then president Nicolas Maduro. That math does not hold up. An independent check of the dates shows Maduro was captured on January 3, 2026, in a military operation in Caracas, while the deal was announced on August 28, a gap of seven and a half to eight months, not nine. Maduro has been held in US custody since his arrest, charged with narcoterrorism and drug trafficking. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial, according to ABC News, is scheduled for 2027 in New York.
Rodriguez, in one of her first moves after taking power, reversed the decades-long policy of nationalizing the oil sector that Hugo Chavez had launched, opening it up to private investment, a seismic shift for a country that spent two decades pursuing a self-declared socialist approach to its resources. On the deal, she said:
“It will have a significant impact on the rebirth of our nation.”
Secretary of State Rubio also welcomed the agreement on X: “This deal is a huge win for both the American and Venezuelan people.”
Reserves are the world’s largest, but production is among the weakest
Venezuela holds a total of 303 billion barrels in reserves, about 17 percent of the world’s proven oil, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Despite that, the country produces only about 1 percent of the world’s oil, since its infrastructure has been neglected for years. On the day Maduro was ousted, Trump gathered oil companies at the White House and urged them to return to Venezuela. The response was cautious: ExxonMobil chief Darren Woods called the country “uninvestable” at the time. Chevron, the only American company currently operating in Venezuela, declined to comment on Trump’s announcement.
Whether a private operator will be named, and whether major companies will actually put the promised $100 billion into a country whose infrastructure has been run down for decades, are questions whose answers are still months away.
