President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration has struck a comprehensive agreement with Venezuela that, if achieved, could give the United States access to vast amounts of untapped oil reserves in the South American country, at a cost.
Trump said in a social media post announcing the agreement that it was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Acting President of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez.
“The United States of America has just concluded an agreement with the country of Venezuela regarding the largest oil deal in world history!” Trump wrote.
The Rodriguez government said in a statement that the deal includes the development of 17 fields with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels. She said the agreement could attract $100 billion in investments in Venezuela’s oil industry and generate more than $209 billion in taxes for Caracas.
Rodriguez predicted in a post on Telegram that the deal “will have a significant impact on the revival of our nation.”
The agreement allows the United States to enter into a partnership with an unnamed private operator in Venezuela to create a new private company to acquire the reserves, according to a US official familiar with the details of the deal.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, added that Rodriguez granted the company 100-year rights to develop the oil fields.
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The deal gives the United States 55 percent of the new private company’s actual production – including an ownership stake and rights to purchase oil at cost. The company will be the second largest company with proven reserves after Saudi Aramco, according to the official.
Trump is under pressure to show he is cutting oil costs
This announcement comes nearly nine months after the US military, under Trump’s direction, carried out an operation to arrest then-President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro and transfer him to the United States to face federal charges of terrorism and drug trafficking.
Trump is facing increasing pressure to address high gas prices as the war in Iran on Friday reached the six-month stage with no end in sight. The United States exploited its strategic oil reserves, which fell in early August to less than 300 million barrels, a decrease of more than 100 million barrels since the beginning of 2026.
The US-Israeli war against Iran led to a significant slowdown in the movement of Gulf oil through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil passed before the conflict.
The average price of gas in the United States was about $4.09 per gallon on Friday, according to AAA. The average price was $3.21 at the same time last year.
A significant decline in US gas prices associated with the agreement should not be expected immediately. Experts have repeatedly warned that a significant increase in Venezuelan oil production will not happen quickly because repairing and expanding infrastructure takes years and requires billions of dollars.
Persuading major US oil companies to return to the region could face headwinds given political uncertainty and decades of severe damage to infrastructure.
Days after Maduro’s ouster, Trump gathered oil sector officials in the White House and called on them to quickly return to Venezuela. Executives expressed interest in the opportunity, but there was also a degree of caution given their previous experience in the country.
Darren Woods, CEO of Exxon Mobil, the largest US oil company, said at that moment that he saw the country as “uninvestable.”
But Trump insisted that his administration had brought a measure of stability to Venezuela.
He claimed that Venezuela stole American oil when former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez moved decades ago to nationalize hundreds of foreign-owned assets, including those owned by American oil companies.
In one of her early moves after taking power, Rodriguez signed a law opening the country’s oil sector to privatization, reversing the basic principle of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.
Rubio said on “X” that the agreement would bring billions of dollars in private investment into Venezuela and lead to lower gas prices in the United States.
“This deal is a huge win for both the American and Venezuelan people,” Rubio said.
According to the US official, the oil purchased from the new company will be used to fill the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve and for military use.
Venezuela has one of the largest oil reserves in the world, with an estimated 303 billion barrels of crude oil in the ground. This represents about 17 percent of global supplies, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Unlike other parts of the world, where geologists have to search for untapped oil, experts say the reserves under Venezuelan soil are largely identified and known. But because of crumbling infrastructure, the country produces only about 1% of the world’s oil.
Maduro remains imprisoned in the United States and has pleaded not guilty.
—Garcia Cano reported from Caracas.
& Edition 2026 The Canadian Press
