Trump says US has entered deal with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of oil reserves

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that the United States has entered into a monumental agreement with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of the South American country's oil reserves. The deal, reportedly negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez, has been publicized through a social media post by Trump himself. He emphasized that this is "THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!"

The announcement of the deal arrives nearly nine months after a U.S. military operation facilitated by Trump's direction captured Venezuela's president Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the United States to face federal narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges. Trump's administration is currently grappling with high gas prices and the ongoing war in Iran, which has no clear resolution in sight.

In response to these challenges, the U.S. has tapped its strategic petroleum reserves, which fell below 300 million barrels in early August, a decline of over 100 million barrels since the beginning of the year.

Following Maduro's removal in January, Trump had floated the notion of U.S. oil companies returning to Venezuela to exploit its vast oil reserves. The president has argued that Venezuela had wrongfully taken control of U.S. oil assets when former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nationalized hundreds of foreign-owned properties decades ago.

Venezuela is estimated to possess one of the most extensive oil reserves globally, with an estimated 303 billion barrels of crude oil in the ground, which constitutes approximately 17% of the world's total supply. While geologists must often search for untapped oil in other regions, the reserves beneath Venezuela's soil are largely mapped and known.

However, due to the country's deteriorated infrastructure, it currently produces only about 1% of the world's oil.