President Donald Trump on Friday said the US has entered an agreement with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of the South American country's oil reserves.
Trump in a social media post announced the agreement he said was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez.
"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.
The Venezuelan government's press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The announcement of the deal comes nearly nine months after the U.S. military at Trump's direction carried out an operation to capture Venezuela's president Nicolás Maduro and spirit him to the United States to face federal narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges.
Trump faces mounting pressure to address high gas prices as the war in Iran on Friday reached a six-month milestone with no conclusion in sight. The US has tapped its strategic petroleum reserves, which in early August fell below 300 million barrels, down by more than 100 million barrels since the start of 2026.
The US-Israel war against Iran has led to a dramatic slowdown of Gulf oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz, which about 20 per cent of the world petroleum passed through prior to the conflict.
The average price of gas in the U.S. stood at about USD 4.09 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA. The average price was USD 3.21 at the same time last year.
Trump in his social media post Friday evening alluded to the Venezuela deal being part of a private partnership. The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the private sector partners involved in the deal, and details on how the arrangement would work were not provided.
Persuading big American oil companies to return the region could face headwinds given and decades of badly damaged infrastructure.
