Trump: US has control of large slice of Venezuela’s oil

Trump: U.S. has control of large slice of Venezuela’s oil

President Trump said Friday evening that there will be “majority U.S. control” of a large swath of Venezuela’s oil reserves.

“BREAKING NEWS: The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on, THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social .

“At my direction, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, working closely with Highly Respected Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, and, through a partnership with private business, have secured majority U.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer,” he added.

The 65-billion-barrel figure represents about 21 percent of Venezuela’s total proven reserves, which amount to 303 billion barrels .

A U.S. official told The Hill via email that Rodriguez granted a private company that is a joint venture between the U.S. government and a private operator in Venezuela 100-year “concessions” for oil fields containing 63 billion barrels of proven reserves. The private operator was not named.

The U.S. official also said that the U.S. government will have more than half of the value of the new oil company. This value will be divided between equity ownership and guaranteed oil offtake.

The U.S. would get 55 percent “effective output” of the joint venture, according to the official. And, they said, the new company would have the second-largest proven oil reserve in the world, following only Saudi Aramco.

Welcome to The Hill’s Energy & Environment newsletter, I’m Rachel Frazin — keeping you up to speed on the policies impacting everything from oil and gas to new supply chains.

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