Trump promises his Venezuela oil deal will 'fill up' the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It's not that simple.

President Trump says a newly announced oil deal with the Venezuelan government will "fill up" the US government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), describing a "'topping out' process [that] will begin very shortly."

But an array of issues suggests it won't be quite that simple. There are questions about the deal's legality as well as whether it will yield anywhere near the level of oil Trump is promising in the decades ahead.

On top of that, Venezuela produces a different kind of oil than what is stored in the US energy backstop.

"Most of Venezuela's proven oil reserves are extra-heavy crude oil," the US government's Energy Information Administration notes , which the Energy Department concluded years ago wasn't cost-effective to store.

"DOE has analyzed heavy oil storage and found that the costs outweigh the benefits and storing heavy oil would present considerable operational difficulties," a 2016 report to Congress said.

Meanwhile, a weekly update showed the reserve dropped by another 3 million barrels over the last week, to 286.6 million barrels from 289.7 million barrels.

The reserve sits at a more than 43-year low, following drawdowns under both Trump and President Biden. The SPR hasn't been this low since November 1982, when it was first being filled under President Reagan.Th e latest reading means the energy backstop is now nearing a third of its total authorized storage capacity of roughly 714 million barrels.

Oil markets offered notes of skepticism to the Venezuela deal on Monday, with oil prices rising in spite of a claim from Trump that the deal "will substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans."

Energy traders are more focused for now on developments in Iran after the US and Iran exchanged fire for the first time in about a month, and Trump posted an apparently AI-generated video of Kharg Island, a key Iranian seaport, "being blown to smithereens!!!"

Trump is also expected to meet with refiners and fuel retailers this week as the administration looks to continue highlighting ⁠efforts to lower US ​gasoline ​prices that remain above $4 per gallon .

Venezuelan oil is 'heavy,' but 'the SPR does not contain heavy crude'

The exact contours of the deal between the US and Venezuela remain murky, with no contract publicly released.

Officials from the two nations have outlined plans for a new joint venture between the US government and a still-unnamed private operator, which will be given 100-year leases for Venezuelan oil fields that geologists estimate contain billions of barrels.