US President Donald Trump has announced a historic trade agreement with Venezuela, which he has described as “the largest oil deal in the history of the world”. Trump claims that through this agreement the United States has gained majority control over Venezuela's vast reserves of more than 65 billion barrels of proven crude oil. The US administration believes that this step will lead to an unprecedented increase in the supply of crude oil in the domestic market, which will help in controlling the rising prices of petrol and diesel.
Trump's big claim on 'Truth Social'
While sharing information about this deal on his social media platform 'Truth Social', the US President wrote that Foreign Minister Marco Rubio and Defense Minister Pete Hegseth have finalized this agreement along with Venezuela's interim President Delsey Rodriguez. Partnership of private oil companies has been taken in this entire process. Trump specifically mentioned that this entire deal did not cost American taxpayers a single penny.
It is noteworthy that this announcement has come at a time when former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was detained as part of a secret operation by the US Army. Maduro faces serious allegations of narco-terrorism and drug trafficking. Only after Maduro's removal from power was the way cleared for American oil companies to re-enter the Venezuelan market.
Global oil crisis and declining US reserves
In fact, due to the ongoing war with Iran for the last six months and the ongoing geopolitical tension in the Middle East, there is immense pressure on the US administration to reduce the high fuel rates. To deal with the situation, America had to use its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which had dropped to a low of 300 million barrels.
According to data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Venezuela has about 303 billion barrels of crude oil underground, which is about 17 percent of the world's total global reserves. However, due to dilapidated infrastructure and years of political crisis, Venezuela currently extracts only 1 percent of global output.
What will change with this deal?
The United States has argued that the infrastructure of American companies was confiscated by nationalizing foreign oil assets decades ago during the tenure of former President Hugo Chavez. Now, through the new agreement, American companies will again improve the infrastructure there and start oil extraction directly. If this agreement fully materializes, then America's national oil reserves can be increased by more than double, which can completely change the equation of the global energy market in the coming days.