President Trump and Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez have announced that Washington and Caracas have reached a major oil deal, which comes nearly nine months after the US attack on Venezuela to abduct President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump first announced the new oil deal, writing on Truth Social on Friday that the US, through a private business, has “secured majority US control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela.”
The president claimed that the deal “greatly increases our Oil Supply, and will substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans, long into the future,” though any substantial increase in Venezuelan oil production will require billions of dollars in investment and years of work. Trump claimed the project will not come “at no cost to the American Taxpayer,” but it’s unclear where the funds for the necessary investments would come from.
In her announcement, Rodriguez claimed the deal involves “the development of 17 strategic fields, with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels of oil, an investment of more than $100 billion, and more than $209 billion in taxes for the State.”
A US State Department official speaking to TIME Magazine described the “private company” that has been granted access to the oil fields as a “joint project of the US government and an experienced private operator in Venezuela” and said that the company has the rights for 100 years, though in other comments Rodriguez said it was a 25-year deal.
Trump suggested on Sunday that he could fill the US strategic oil reserve with Venezuelan oil under the deal, though Venezuela’s current production levels are nowhere close to the US’s. Venezuela currently produces about 1.25 million barrels per day, and more than half already goes to the US, while the US produces 13.6 million barrels of crude oil per day.
“One of the things I am going to do with the Venezuelan Oil is fill up the Strategic National Reserves, which, because of Sleepy Joe Biden, has been virtually emptied. The ‘topping out’ process will begin very shortly, and is a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States,” Trump said.
Since the January 3 attack on Venezuela, the US has tightly controlled Venezuela’s oil trade, holding its revenue and cutting off oil shipments to Cuba, where the ramped-up US oil embargo has caused a devastating humanitarian crisis.
Coinciding with the announcement of the US-Venezuela oil deal was a thread posted on X from Maduro’s account, showing a picture of the Venezuelan leader in prison in the US, along with a hopeful message. “We will remain strong, serene, and confident: God is with us. God will provide. Venezuela will be reborn,” the thread read.
