Trump and Rodriguez announce U.S. majority control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil

President Donald Trump said on Friday, 28 August, that the United States had secured majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan oil reserves through a pact with interim President Delcy Rodriguez and a private operator. He called it the biggest oil deal in world history and said it would more than double U.S. reserves, raise supply and cut petrol prices. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth were named as the American negotiators.

A White House official told CNN the structure gives the United States 55 percent effective output of a new private joint venture, through an ownership stake and a right to buy crude at cost. The same official said the company would be the second-largest private holder of proven reserves after Saudi Aramco. Rodriguez granted 100-year concessions on the fields, the official added, with U.S. support.

Caracas put numbers of its own on the same night. Rodriguez said the pact covers 17 strategic fields with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels, more than $100 billion in investment, and more than $209 billion in tax for the state. She wrote on Telegram that the deal would have a significant impact on the country's revival. Rubio, posting separately, said the arrangement would bring nearly $100 billion in private investment and thousands of jobs on the Venezuelan side, and stable, low-cost crude for U.S. refiners.

What 65 billion barrels is, and what it is not

Venezuela's proven reserves stand near 300 billion barrels, among the largest booked totals on Earth and about a fifth of the global figure on Energy Information Administration tallies. Sixty-five billion barrels is therefore a slice, not the whole inventory. Reuters described it as about a fifth of the national reserve book. Much of that oil is extra-heavy crude from the Orinoco Belt and from mature fields around Lake Maracaibo. Extra-heavy barrels need diluent, upgraders and a buyer set up for high-sulphur feedstock. U.S. Gulf Coast plants can take that slate. Many other refineries cannot.

Production is the tighter constraint. Output is near 1.25 million barrels a day in recent official and industry tallies, far below the peaks of the late 1990s. Years of underinvestment, staff losses at PDVSA, decaying pipelines and earlier sanctions left wells idle and export terminals unreliable. A concession on paper does not restart a well. The 100-year term signals that Washington and Caracas expect a long rebuild, not a quick lift in weekly tanker loadings.

Trump said the deal came at no cost to the American taxpayer. That claim tracks the official description of a private joint venture rather than a Treasury purchase of reserves. It does not answer who pays for new rigs, power, water treatment, security and export pipes, or how those costs sit on the joint venture's books. Rubio's $100 billion investment figure is a target, not a signed capex schedule.

The politics around the signature

Rodriguez became interim president after U.S. forces seized Nicolas Maduro in January and flew him to New York. The oil announcement is the largest commercial claim Washington has attached to that change of government. Hegseth's presence in the talks, unusual for a petroleum concession, shows how the administration treats the file as security as well as energy.

Domestic U.S. prices are part of the pitch. Petrol rose during the Iran conflict that Trump opened earlier in the year. A new heavy-oil stream aimed at Gulf Coast plants would, if it arrives, compete with other sour barrels. It would not, by itself, reset retail prices in a market still set by OPEC+ policy, refining margins and the dollar.

Legal title is the other open point. PDVSA and the Venezuelan state have layered claims, older joint ventures, arbitration awards and U.S. court attachments on Citgo and other assets. A 100-year grant from an interim government will be tested by successor cabinets, by bondholders and by companies that already hold field rights. Reuters noted that weak infrastructure and legal issues could slow the pact even if both capitals keep backing it.

What to watch next

Three documents will show whether Friday's posts become barrels. The first is the joint-venture charter: who the private operator is, how the 55 percent output share is calculated, and whether PDVSA keeps a carried interest. The second is a field list that names the 17 blocks and their current production. The third is a first lifting schedule that names terminals and grades.

Until those papers appear, the 65 billion barrel figure remains a reserve booking attached to a political bargain. The wells in Lake Maracaibo and the Orinoco Belt are still the same wells they were on Thursday. The difference is who claims the right to spend money on them, and who claims the first call on whatever they produce.