WASHINGTON (AP) โ President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. has entered an agreement with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of the South American countryโs 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 Venezuelaโs interim President Delcy Rodriguez.
โThe United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on, THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!โ Trump wrote.
The announcement of the deal comes nearly nine months after the U.S. military at Trumpโs direction carried out an operation to capture Venezuelaโs president Nicolรกs 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 U.S. 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.
In the days following Maduroโs ouster in January, Trump floated the idea of U.S. oil companies returning to Venezuela to tap its oil reserves. Trump has argued that Venezuela stole U.S. oil when former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavezโs 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. Thatโs about 17% of the worldโs supply, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Unlike other parts of the world, where geologists have to search for untapped oil, the reserves under Venezuelaโs soil are largely mapped and known, experts say. But because of dilapidated infrastructure, the country only produces about 1% of the worldโs oil.
