President Trump announced Friday that the US has struck a deal with Venezuela's interim government to take a majority stake in 65 billion barrels of the country's oil reserves — about a fifth of Venezuela's total proven reserves. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth negotiated the terms with acting President Delcy Rodríguez. A private operator, North American Blue Energy Partners, gets 100-year rights to 17 untapped oil fields. The US gets 55% of the company's output, including the right to buy oil at cost for the strategic reserve and the military. The deal could bring Venezuela about $100 billion in investment and more than $209 billion in taxes over its life, according to figures released with the announcement. The agreement follows a US military operation in January 2026 that captured then-President Nicolás Maduro and flew him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.

1. The Administration Says This Locks In Cheap Oil, No Cost To Taxpayers (Trump, Rubio, Hegseth)

Trump is calling it the biggest oil deal in history — a strategic win that pays for itself.

The US gets more than half the output, at cost. Fifty-five percent of the new operator's oil flows straight to the US strategic reserve and the military, at cost rather than market price. Trump announced the deal himself: "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 says this corrects an old wrong. He's argued Venezuela "stole" American oil assets when Hugo Chávez nationalized foreign-owned holdings years ago, and this deal claws that back.

Gas relief is coming, just not on a fixed timeline. Trump has said prices "could be a little bit" away from dropping and wouldn't commit to a date before the midterms.

2. Venezuela's Government Calls It A Rescue Plan (Delcy Rodríguez)

Rodríguez is selling the deal at home as the thing that finally rebuilds the country's oil industry.

Rodríguez says this brings jobs and prosperity. In televised remarks, she called the deal a step toward economic recovery that will modernize Venezuela's oil sector.

Rodríguez is pitching the money Venezuela stands to gain. The deal could bring Venezuela roughly $100 billion in investment and over $209 billion in tax revenue over its life. Rodríguez says that money will modernize an oil sector that's been falling apart for years.

3. Senate Democrats Call It Troops-For-Oil (Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Sen. Tim Kaine)

Van Hollen and Kaine say the deal benefits insiders, not ordinary Americans.

Van Hollen says the deal proves the real motive. The Maryland Democrat wrote, "Let's be clear: this isn't a win... This is proof Trump put our service members at risk to get Venezuelan oil for his billionaire buddies."

Kaine says even a price drop wouldn't make it a win. The Virginia senator, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump used Maduro's ouster to "control Venezuelan oil." He said the deal "will pad the pockets of Trump family and Big Oil companies and delay transition to cleaner energy."

They point to who actually holds the rights. One privately controlled operator, North American Blue Energy Partners, gets the 100-year contract — not the Venezuelan state, and not a broad group of American companies.

4. Venezuela's Opposition And An Economist Say The Deal Won't Hold Up (Opposition Leader María Corina Machado, Economist Ricardo Hausmann)

Machado and Hausmann aren't arguing about price. They're arguing Rodríguez had no authority to sign the deal.

Machado says Rodríguez isn't in a position to make this deal. The opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate said Rodríguez was "one of the main architects" of Maduro's regime and that "nobody trusts her" to strike legitimate agreements for the country.

Hausmann says the deal is unconstitutional on its face. The Harvard economist and former Venezuelan planning minister called it a "shameful deal." He wrote that "Venezuelans will not respect this illegitimate deal and no major US oil company will take it seriously because they know it will not last." An "illegitimate interim government with an illegitimate hydrocarbons law," he added, "has no legitimacy to strike this unconstitutional deal."

Even a former US energy adviser calls the legal footing shaky. Amos Hochstein called the arrangement "uncharted territory from a legal and diplomatic perspective." He noted Caracas has expropriated foreign oil investors twice before, and said a future Democratic administration could challenge the deal outright.

Where This Lands

Trump's team is treating this as a strategic and economic win at no cost to US taxpayers. Rodríguez is selling the same deal to Venezuelans as the money that rebuilds their oil industry. Van Hollen and Kaine argue the real winners are a single private operator and politically connected insiders, not American drivers or the troops who backed the operation that made the deal possible. Machado and Hausmann go further and say the whole thing rests on an interim government that never had the authority to sign a 100-year contract in the first place.

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