President Trump Now Has The Oil to Refill Our Reserves
The United States has reached a sweeping oil agreement with Venezuela that President Donald Trump says will give Washington control over more than 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan reserves while providing a new source of crude for America’s strategic stockpile.
Trump announced the agreement Sunday, presenting it as both an energy deal and an opportunity to replenish reserves that he has repeatedly criticized former President Joe Biden for drawing down.
“One of the things I am going to do with the Venezuelan Oil is fill up the Strategic National Reserves which, because of Sleepy Joe Biden, has been virtually emptied,” Trump wrote on social media. “The ‘topping out’ process will begin very shortly, and is a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States.”
Trump had earlier said the arrangement would more than double American oil reserves and “substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans,” according to the BBC.
The agreement represents another major development in Washington’s rapidly changing relationship with Caracas. Venezuela possesses the world’s largest proven oil reserves, making access to its enormous petroleum resources a central part of the new arrangement.
Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez confirmed the agreement during a late-night address Saturday. Rodríguez said the deal would remain in effect for 25 years and portrayed it as an important part of Venezuela’s efforts to revive its battered economy.
The arrangement follows the dramatic events of January, when U.S. forces captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro was subsequently brought to New York to face drug charges. Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president, assumed the interim presidency with U.S. backing following his capture.
Trump had made no secret afterward that Venezuelan oil would figure prominently in his administration’s plans. He previously vowed to tap the country’s massive reserves, and the newly announced agreement now establishes a long-term structure for doing exactly that.
According to a U.S. official cited by CBS News, the American government will retain 55 percent control of a joint venture involving an “experienced private operator in Venezuela.”
That majority stake gives the United States a significant position in the venture while leaving a private operator involved in the actual Venezuelan operation.
For Trump, there is also a domestic objective: rebuilding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Biden authorized a historic release from the reserve in 2022 as his administration attempted to counter high fuel prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Trump repeatedly attacked those withdrawals during and after the 2024 presidential campaign.
Now he says Venezuelan crude will help reverse that policy.
The scale involved is substantial. Venezuela has hundreds of billions of barrels of proven reserves overall, while Trump says the portion covered by the new U.S. arrangement exceeds 65 billion barrels. His administration is betting that the deal can simultaneously strengthen U.S. strategic supplies and put downward pressure on prices at the pump.