What’s behind the US deal to seize control of Venezuelan oil reserves?

According to The United States has, it has secured control of a substantial portion of Venezuela's vast oil reserves, after President Donald Trump pledged to "take back" the South American country's energy resources.

Key points

• But the emergency stockpile is shrinking, with only 289.7 million barrels in storage facilities designed to hold up to 714 million barrels.
• Separately, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a foreign policy hawk, framed the oil accord as a victory for Trump's America First platform.
• Administration estimates indicate that proven US oil reserves are declining, standing at approximately 46 billion barrels by the end of 2024.
• Once the war began on February 28, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic.
• The year 2026 has seen dramatic changes for Venezuela and its relationship with the US.

On Friday, Trump confirmed that his administration and that of Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez had reached a accord to provide the US majority control over more than 65 billion barrels' worth of proven oil reserves.

Details remain unclear. But the accord will involve 17 strategic oil fields in Venezuela. The US administration has stated it will partner with a private business to extract the fuel.

"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 social media post celebrating the announcement.

What has been remarked so far, and what could the new agreement mean for US-Venezuela relations? We answer those questions and more in this explainer. How much oil is involved? The accord reportedly involves 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves.

That amounts to roughly a fifth of Venezuela's proven oil reserves. As of 2023, the US administration estimates that Venezuela has 303 billion barrels of oil reserves, the largest known deposit in the world.

Approximately 17 percent of the world's oil supply is estimated to be in the South American country.

But some analysts have questioned the 65-billion-barrel total Trump confirmed. With no fixed terms published, there has been speculation that Trump may have produced a splashy announcement to support jumpstart the US economy.

"The 65 billion barrel number is a red herring and will have little relevance to any actual deals – the real relevant details of which are still almost entirely unknown, " oil market researcher Rory Johnston remarked in a social media post.

"It's just a classic big number that Trump was sure to jump all over and will repeat ad nauseam going forward." How will this affect US oil supplies?

According to Trump has, the agreement "MORE THAN DOUBLES American Oil Reserves".

In practice, the US administration additionally operates a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency supply of oil to support ensure steady domestic supplies.

But the emergency stockpile is shrinking, with only 289.7 million barrels in storage facilities designed to hold up to 714 million barrels. Trump has indicated that Friday's accord will assist restore the US oil reserves. It have hit their lowest levels since 1982. What led to this moment?

Meanwhile, the year 2026 has seen dramatic changes for Venezuela and its relationship with the US.

Since 2013, the South American country had been led by socialist President Nicolas Maduro, whose tenure had been defined by a series of disputed elections and crackdowns on political dissent.

Trump and Maduro had repeatedly clashed, with Trump accusing the Venezuelan leader of sending drug-traffickers into the US, and Maduro accusing Trump of foreign interference in domestic politics.

Their conflict came to a head on January 3. For weeks, US military vessels had been amassing off the shore of Venezuela, and during the early morning hours, Trump authorised an operation to abduct and imprison the Venezuelan leader.

Maduro now awaits trial on drug- and weapons-related charges in New York.

In the aftermath of the attack, Trump backed Maduro's former vice president, Rodriguez, to lead the administration in Caracas. She was sworn in shortly afterwards.

Notably, the Trump administration additionally unveiled that Washington would take control of Venezuela's oil exports "indefinitely".

According to Critics have, the Trump administration has pressured Rodriguez to comply with its demands. "If she doesn't do what's right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro, " Trump informed The Atlantic magazine in January. What are Trump's claims to Venezuela's oil?

Experts have denounced US intervention in Venezuela as illegal under international law.

But the Trump administration has created the claim to Venezuelan oil resources a key pillar in its involvement in the South American country.

In the lead-up to the January 3 attack, Trump and his allies advanced an argument that Venezuela's oil supplies belonged to the US, due to a history of early fuel exploration in the country.

As part of an effort to nationalise the fossil fuel industry, they additionally denounced the Venezuelan government's efforts to expropriate oil resources from private businesses.

In December, Trump confirmed a blockade around Venezuela to prevent the sale of oil, its largest export. As justification, he accused Venezuela of having "stolen oil fields" from the US.

His adviser, Stephen Miller, separately called the nationalisation of Venezuela's oil industry "the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property".

International law, nevertheless, gives countries "permanent sovereignty" over their resources, to protect them from unwanted foreign exploitation. Why announce a accord now? Friday marked the six-month anniversary of the US-Israel war on Iran.

Once the war began on February 28, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic. Almost one-fifth of the world's oil and natural gas supply passed freely through the strait before the war.

In practice, the shutdown has resulted in a spike in global oil rates, including in the US, where voters will head to the polls in November for midterm elections.

Meanwhile, the American Automobile Association (AAA) confirmed this week that it expects this month to be the most expensive August on record for petrol costs, with US consumers paying an average of more than $4 a gallon (3.8 litres).

As is the war itself, the dispute over the strategic waterway is ongoing. Ongoing military actions have additionally strained US oil supplies. How is the Trump administration framing the new oil accord?

As a model for how it would like to accord with foreign adversaries like Iran, trump has repeatedly held up Venezuela, under Rodriguez's leadership.

He has additionally touted Washington's control over Venezuelan oil supplies as a boon for the US economy during the midterm election period.

"We're doing great in Venezuela. We're taking a lot of oil from Venezuela, and we're getting along great with them, " Trump informed supporters at a rally in Las Vegas this month.

He then asserted to have "paid for the war" against Venezuela "with what we've taken out" from the country.

"That's the old-fashioned way, right? The old-fashioned way, " Trump informed the crowd. "To the victor belong the spoils, right?"

In announcing Friday's accord, Trump pledged that the resulting rise in the US oil supply "will substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans". The cost of living is projected to be a key problem in this year's midterm races.

Taken together, the developments around what's behind the US deal to seize control of Venezuelan oil reserves? Point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.