Online Reporter
Donald Trump announced on Friday a new US oil agreement with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez, saying America will have “majority” control of 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.
The terms of the agreement remain to be seen, but the US President said on his social-media platform that it had been brokered “through a partnership with private business” by his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth.
The administration, Trump wrote, has “secured majority US control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American taxpayer”.
Trump said the agreement would more than double American oil reserves.
“This deal is a huge win for both the American and Venezuelan people,” Rubio wrote on social media.
Trump’s announcement provided few details on the structure of the agreement, the fields or companies involved or how the US would exercise majority control over the reserves.
Venezuela has an estimated 303 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the world’s largest.
Since the US captured and removed former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power in January, Washington has been trying to secure a stable flow of Venezuelan crude oil for US refineries while promoting American investment into the OPEC country’s deteriorated energy industry, which produces 1,25 million barrels per day of crude.
Trump is under pressure before November’s midterm elections over rising petrol prices, which could be eased through cheaper oil supplies and expanded output.
The US also has been looking for solutions to replenish its strategic petroleum reserve, the oil stockpile, including the possibility of crude swaps with US producers.
Earlier last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration was “in advanced talks with Venezuela for the US to take a direct stake in more than a dozen oilfields that house nearly one-third of the country’s massive energy reserves”.
Axios also reported on the negotiations, quoting a US official who claimed the deal would be “massive”. — UK Guardian
