What we know about Trump's deal giving US access to vast oil reserves in
Venezuela
[August 31, 2026] By
COLLIN BINKLEY and JUAN PABLO ARRÁEZ
WASHINGTON (AP) — Besides a social media post from President Donald
Trump, the White House has said little about what he is calling “THE
BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY” in Venezuela.
Trump said the agreement announced Friday night would give the United
States a stake in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, a step toward his goal
of extracting energy from the country after American forces captured
then-President Nicolás Maduro in a middle-of-the-night raid in January
and brought him to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, described the deal as a
step toward economic recovery that will modernize the country’s oil
industry. In a televised address to the nation late Saturday, Rodríguez
insisted Venezuela's sovereignty is secure and said she wants the
country to become a global energy powerhouse.
Earlier on Saturday, she said the oil reserves would “cease to be an
inert, cold statistic and will instead become concrete solutions.
Housing is one of them.”
But the answers to many questions, including how soon the reserves could
be drilled and who will pay to make it happen, were not immediately
clear. No text of any agreement has been released.
A look at what is known and unknown:
What are the terms?
The U.S. government and an unnamed private operator in Venezuela formed
a new company that was given the rights to untapped oil fields for 100
years.
The administration appears to be trying to find ways to make it easier
for the private sector to invest in Venezuela’s industry through the
deal, said Bob McNally, who was an energy adviser in former President
George W. Bush’s White House. “However, investors will remain cautious
even if the terms of the deal, once released, pass legal muster. A
future president could withdraw, and Caracas has twice thrown foreign
investors out,” McNally said.
A statement from Rodríguez said the deal involves the development of 17
fields with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels. It said the
agreement could draw $100 billion in investment into Venezuela’s oil
industry and yield over $209 billion in taxes for Caracas.
Trump said the agreement was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco
Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Rodríguez.
The deal gives the United States 55% effective output of the new private
company, including an ownership stake and rights to buy oil at cost.
American purchases of the oil will go toward the U.S. strategic oil
reserves along with the military, according to a U.S. official who was
not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition
of anonymity.
The company would be the second largest corporate holder of proven
reserves after Saudi Aramco, according to the official.
Amos Hochstein, who was a senior energy adviser to former President Joe
Biden, said the deal is uncharted territory from a legal and diplomatic
perspective. It carries tremendous risk for companies thinking about
doing business under the new arrangement, he said. Democrats could
challenge the deal if they regain power in Washington, as could future
administrations in Venezuela.
“There will be a lot of challenges to what was just announced,”
Hochstein said. “I can only say, if it were me, I’d be nervous. And if
I’m back in my old job in the next administration, then they should be
nervous.”
Will gas prices go down?
Probably not any time soon.
Trump says the deal will help lower gas prices for Americans. That is an
important objective for the Republican president as the Iran war slows
the shipping of Persian Gulf oil and keeps prices elevated months before
November elections in the United States.
But experts have repeatedly warned that Venezuela’s dilapidated oil
infrastructure will take years and billions of dollars to repair. A
substantial boost in production is not expected to happen quickly.
The deal could be “helpful in the long run, but it’s not going to do
anything to change the price of gasoline at the retail station for Labor
Day weekend,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, director of the Energy, Climate
Justice and Sustainability Lab at New York University.
Neither side made clear who would pay for infrastructure investments and
at what cost.
For now, the war with Iran is having more impact on gas prices than the
agreement with Venezuela. Oil prices rose Sunday after the U.S. attacked
Iranian rocket launchers on the Strait of Hormuz. The price for a barrel
of U.S. oil was up 1.8% to $84.94.
The average price of gas in the U.S. was $4.08 per gallon on Sunday,
according to AAA. That was up from $3.19 a year ago.
Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, said the oil
industry is awaiting clarity on the deal's details. Venezuela has room
to increase its oil production, he said — in the past it produced more
than 2.5 million barrels a day above current levels — but investments of
this scale don't happen quickly.
“It’s going to take time — many years — to deploy that much capital and
produce the kind of incremental results that history suggests possible,"
Book said.
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A pedestrian walks past a mural featuring oil wells in Caracas,
Venezuela, Saturday, Aug 29, 2026, a day after President Donald
Trump announced a deal giving the United States a stake in
Venezuela’s oil reserves. (AP Photo/Pedro Mattey)
 How will Venezuelans react?
Some in Venezuela considered it a betrayal of what their government
has stated repeatedly for decades: Venezuelan resources are for
Venezuela, and leaders would not allow the U.S. government access to
those resources.
At a market in eastern Caracas on Saturday, Douglas
Borjas said he was upset about the announcement.
“I think they’re doing it to cling to power,” he said of Venezuela’s
leaders. “It’s like, ‘I’m giving you a vast amount of petroleum as
long as you leave me alone here in power.’”
He added: “The Venezuelan people deserve better. Venezuela has
resources that can be exploited, but for the benefit of the people,
not for the benefit of the corrupt elite.”
Harvard University professor Ricardo Hausmann, a former Venezuelan
planning minister, called it a “shameful deal."
“Venezuelans will not respect this illegitimate deal and no major US
oil company will take it seriously because they know it will not
last,” Hausmann said on social media, adding that Rodríguez “has no
legitimacy or constitutional power to commit Venezuela to any such
deal."
In her national address, Rodríguez pushed back on some of the early
criticism.
“One thing must be absolutely clear: Venezuela retains ownership and
sovereignty over its resources,” Rodríguez said. She said the goal
is to reach other agreements with transnational private companies
such as Chevron, Repsol and Shell.
She added: “We want to be an energy powerhouse, a major oil
producer, a significant gas exporter, and a major national
petrochemical developer."
What's the reaction on Capitol Hill?
It is unclear whether Congress will play a role in the arrangement,
but lawmakers from both parties were quick to weigh in.
Trump allies called it a win.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said it was a historic deal that helps
both countries. “If it were up to DC Democrats, Maduro would still
be in power, Venezuelan oil would be going to China at half price,
and the people of Venezuela would be getting robbed by a corrupt
regime,” Moreno wrote on social media.
It was condemned by Democrats who said Maduro's capture was a means
to this end.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Trump was always after Venezuela's oil,
branding it “corruption at epic scale.”
“Will prices come down for Americans? Who knows but likely not as
much as Trump has forced them up thru his idiotic Iran War," Kaine
said on social media.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Trump “put our service members at
risk to get Venezuelan oil for his billionaire buddies.”
What questions remain?
Many important details remain unclear, including who will cover
necessary investments, the identity of the private operator and how
America’s stake in the company breaks down.
The U.S. will get 55% of the company's effective output, but it was
not clear what portion of that comes from an ownership stake and how
much comes from the right to buy oil at cost.
It also is unclear how the industry will react. Persuading big
American oil companies to return to the region could prove a
challenge given the political uncertainty and damaged
infrastructure.
Chevron, the only U.S. oil company actively producing in Venezuela,
declined to comment. Separately from Trump’s announcement, Chevron
already had been in talks to expand investment in the country. Exxon
Mobil also declined to comment.
David Oxley, chief climate and commodities economist at Capital
Economics, said that on its face, the deal could double U.S. oil
reserves and reduce dependence on crude oil from Canada and Mexico.
But Oxley, writing in a commentary, cautioned that there are
logistical hurdles and said the value of Venezuela's reserves may
have been exaggerated under former President Hugo Chavez.
Even with legal and security guarantees, it is not clear that U.S.
oil companies “would be eager to invest,’’ he wrote, noting that
“there simply might be more enticing commercial opportunities on
offer elsewhere.’’
___
Arráez reported from Caracas, Venezuela. Associated Press writer
Moriah Balingit and AP Economics Writer Paul Wiseman in Washington
contributed to this report.
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