WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday that the United States has struck an agreement with Venezuela to take majority control of 65 billion barrels of the country's proven oil reserves, an arrangement his administration said would create the world's second-largest corporate holder of crude, behind only Saudi Aramco.

The deal, disclosed in a Truth Social post as gasoline prices held above $4 a gallon and the U.S.-Israel war against Iran hit its six-month mark, would give Washington direct governance over pieces of the largest known petroleum reserves on the planet. It also opens a new chapter in the extraordinary chain of events that began in January, when U.S. special forces captured then-President Nicolás Maduro and installed his former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, as acting head of state.

Terms of the deal

According to a U.S. official familiar with the arrangement, the United States government will control 55 percent of a joint venture with an unnamed private operator in Venezuela, split between an equity stake and a right to buy oil at cost. Rodríguez granted the venture a 100-year concession to develop 17 oil fields with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels. The oil the government purchases will go toward refilling the strategic petroleum reserve and toward military use, the official said.

Rodríguez's office said the arrangement could pull in $100 billion in private investment and generate more than $209 billion in tax revenue for Caracas. She predicted the deal would have "a significant impact on our nation's revival." Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who negotiated the terms with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, wrote on X that the pact was "a huge win for both the American and Venezuelan people," and would draw nearly $100 billion in private investment into Venezuela. Trump wrote that the transaction was reached "at no cost to the American Taxpayer" and said it would more than double U.S. oil reserves. Neither government released the text of the accord, and Trump did not name the private operator.

Pressure at home

The announcement lands as Trump faces mounting political pressure over gasoline prices ahead of November's midterm elections. Gas averaged about $4.09 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA, up from $3.21 a year earlier. The strategic petroleum reserve, drawn down repeatedly since the Iran conflict began, fell below 300 million barrels in early August, more than 100 million barrels below where it started the year. The war has slowed tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which carried roughly 20 percent of global petroleum before the fighting.

Venezuela holds an estimated 303 billion barrels of crude, the world's largest known reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, but currently produces only about 1 percent of world output. Analysts have warned that repairing and expanding the country's dilapidated infrastructure would take years and billions of dollars, meaning a meaningful drop in U.S. gasoline prices tied to the deal is unlikely to arrive soon.

Corporate hesitation

American oil majors have circled Venezuela warily since Maduro's ouster. At a January White House meeting where Trump urged executives to return, ExxonMobil chief executive Darren Woods called the country "un-investable." Woods cited two waves of nationalization that stripped the company of Venezuelan assets in the 1970s and 2000s. ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil both walked away when former President Hugo Chávez nationalized foreign holdings nearly two decades ago. Chevron, alone among U.S. majors, kept a presence through the sanctions years.

That posture appears to be shifting. Chevron and other U.S. energy firms are expected to sign investment deals in Venezuelan oil fields next week, The Wall Street Journal reported, and the independent Hunt Oil Company signed an agreement with state producer Petróleos de Venezuela earlier this month. Rodríguez, in one of her first acts in office, signed a law opening the oil sector to private management, reversing a bedrock tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.

The Venezuelan objection

The deal has drawn sharp criticism from Venezuelans who opposed Maduro but had expected a post-Maduro government to restore a domestic political process, not sign a century-long concession to Washington. One prominent opposition figure, quoted anonymously by the Guardian, called the arrangement "a land grab – a massive land grab" by "a rapacious, mafioso United States." The BBC noted the concession appears wider in scope than the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority's control over Iraqi oil revenues after the 2003 invasion, and that it is unclear whether the accord could face constitutional challenge in Venezuelan courts. Neither government has released the underlying text.

The first test of investor appetite arrives next week, when Chevron and other U.S. companies are expected to sign contracts in Caracas. Maduro remains jailed in the United States on federal narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges. He has pleaded not guilty.