New Delhi. US President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed a major agreement with Venezuela. According to Trump, under this deal, America will control about 65 billion barrels of oil reserves of Venezuela. He has called it the biggest oil deal in the history of the world.
Trump said in a social media post that the agreement came after talks between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Hegseth and Venezuelan Interim President Delsey Rodriguez. “The United States has just signed a deal with the country of Venezuela – the largest oil deal in the history of the world,” he wrote.
Tension increased after Maduro's arrest
This announcement has come at a time when, on Trump's orders, the US Army had conducted an operation to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and bring him to America. He was said to be facing federal charges related to narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.
Pressure on the Trump administration has also increased amid rising gas prices in America. The global energy market has also been affected due to the ongoing war in Iran for almost six months. In such a situation, America has used its strategic petroleum reserves. By the beginning of August, it was said that less than 300 million barrels of oil were left.
Eyes on Venezuelan oil after Maduro's removal
After removing Maduro from power in January, Trump had talked about sending American oil companies back to Venezuela and using the oil reserves there. Trump has alleged that Venezuela had stolen America's oil. He was referring to the era of former President Hugo Chavez, when hundreds of foreign properties were nationalized decades ago. These also included the assets of American oil companies.
Huge oil reserves of 303 billion barrels
Venezuela has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. There are said to be about 303 billion barrels of crude oil reserves beneath the country's soil. According to the US Energy Information Administration, this is about 17% of the world's total oil reserves.
According to experts, a large amount of Venezuela's oil reserves have already been identified and detailed information is available. However, Venezuela contributes only about 1% of global oil production despite the world's vast reserves, due to weak infrastructure and a lack of production capacity.