Many of the world’s top oil countries have state-run national champions, such as Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, Russia’s Rosneft, the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Brazil’s Petrobras, and Mexico’s Pemex.
But the U.S., which is the world’s biggest oil producer, doesn’t have one, leaving the task of pumping crude to private-sector giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron as well as the multitude of wildcatters across the Permian Basin.
The Trump administration’s deal for 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves, however, will give the federal government a stake in a new joint venture.
The country’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, has granted a private company a 100-year lease for prime oil fields, a U.S. official said, according to reports.
The federal government will control 55% of the company’s effective output via equity ownership and oil production. A private Venezuelan operator will have the remaining share. The U.S. official said the company will be the world’s second-largest corporate holder of proven reserves after Saudi Aramco.
For her part, Rodriguez said the deal will bring in more than $100 billion of investment and generate $209 billion for Venezuela’s government.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, with an estimated 303 billion barrels. President Donald Trump’s deal to gain control of 65 billion barrels of that amount exceeds the U.S. proven reserve total of 46 billion.
The Trump administration’s majority stake in an oil company follows its investments in chipmaker Intel, rare earths miner MP Materials, mineral explorer Trilogy Metals, and dozens of other firms. It also has revenue-sharing agreements with AI chip leaders Nvidia and AMD for sales to China.
The latest deal comes nearly nine months after Trump ordered the military to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and bring him to the U.S. to face federal narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges.
A month after that operation, the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran that resulted in the worst-ever energy supply shock in history, spiking prices higher and forcing countries to draw down crude stockpiles.
In the U.S., the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to 289.7 million barrels, its lowest level since November 1982. Some industry experts have warned that the SPR will soon reach operational minimums soon, wiping out any further cushion to offset the oil deficit from the Middle East.
The U.S. official told reporters that as the U.S.-Venezuelan company ramps up oil production, its output will help restock the SPR. But Venezuela’s oil sector has been in disrepair for decades, and production is now only 1.1 million barrels a day, down from a peak of 3.5 million barrels more than 20 years ago.
Boosting the country’s output to those levels again would require billions of dollars in investment and years before they reach fruition.
Meanwhile, global oil giants with the financial resources to make such investments must be convinced that it’s safe to do business in Venezuela again after their assets were nationalized by earlier governments.
Some are preparing the make the leap. Chevron is close to a deal to expand its longstanding operations in Venezuela, sources told the Wall Street Journal. Oilfield-services giant Halliburton is also in talks to bring equipment to the country, and executives from several oil-and-gas companies will sign production deals next week, the report added.
Italy’s Eni, which has a presence in Venezuela, announced Saturday that it’s working with authorities there to help revitalize the energy sector.
Still, many details about Trump’s new Venezuela venture are still unknown, and energy experts were skeptical about how much investment it could bring.
“For sure, and if Venezuela ever gets anything resembling a democratic government, the very first thing it will do is flush Trump’s deal down the toilet,” Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, posted on X.
