President Trump announced on Aug. 28, 2026, what he described as an oil deal giving the United States a 55% effective-output share of a new private joint venture holding rights to more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves — what he called “the biggest oil deal in world history.” In a social media post that evening, Trump said the arrangement covers more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves across 17 oil fields and gives the US a 55% share of a new joint venture’s output, along with an ownership stake and the right to buy the oil at cost.
Key facts
- Announced: Aug. 28, 2026, in a Trump social media post
- Scope: more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves across 17 oil fields
- Scale: The new venture would be the second-largest private oil company by reserves, after Saudi Aramco.
- US share: 55% of a new joint venture’s output, plus an ownership stake and the right to buy oil at cost
- Negotiators: Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth (who now holds the title Secretary of War) for the US; interim President Delcy Rodriguez for Venezuela
- Investment claims: Rubio cites more than $100 billion in private investment; Venezuelan officials cite an unaudited $209 billion eventually reaching the treasury
- Not yet public: no released contract, no named oil fields, no confirmed private operator
- Background: Nicolás Maduro was captured by US forces in January 2026 and faces narco-terrorism charges in New York; he has pleaded not guilty and has not been convicted
What officials are saying
Trump said the deal was negotiated on the US side by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth, who now holds the title Secretary of War, the post most Americans still know as Secretary of Defense, and on the Venezuelan side by interim President Delcy Rodriguez, and that it comes “at no cost to the American Taxpayer.” He also predicted it would “substantially lower gas prices for all Americans.” Trump also said the deal would more than double US oil reserves. That prediction hasn’t been independently confirmed: Venezuela currently produces roughly 1 million to 1.25 million barrels of oil a day, far below the roughly 3.5 million barrels a day it pumped at its 1970s peak, and a CNN Business analysis found that any real production increase — and any resulting effect on US pump prices — would likely take years rather than months.
Rubio, posting separately, said the deal would bring in more than $100 billion in private investment. He called it “a huge win for both the American and Venezuelan people” that would deliver “stable, low-cost oil for the US” while helping Venezuela “rebuild the country’s economy.” Venezuela’s government struck a similar note: Rodriguez confirmed the agreement on social media the same day, calling it “historic” and saying it would have “a significant impact on the rebirth of our nation.” Venezuela’s governing socialist party, the PSUV, backed the deal. Venezuelan officials have also cited a figure of more than $209 billion eventually flowing into the country’s treasury — a projection from Rodriguez’s government that has not been independently audited.
What’s not yet known
What the deal doesn’t yet include is a public contract.
The missing contract
As of the announcement, the White House had not:
- released the full contract text
- disclosed the joint venture’s legal or financial structure
- named the individual oil fields
- identified the private companies that would actually run the operation
Days before Trump’s announcement, reporting indicated no deal had been signed and talks were still under way; some of that earlier coverage described discussions of a 100-year lease for the fields, but neither Trump nor Rubio repeated that figure in their own statements.
The missing partner
The identity of the private US partners is itself unsettled. ExxonMobil’s chief executive has called Venezuela’s current commercial and legal framework “uninvestable,” and Trump has been reported as leaning toward keeping ExxonMobil out of the deal after oil-company executives responded skeptically at a White House meeting. No major US oil company has been confirmed as a formal party to the Aug. 28 deal — and that includes Chevron. The only major US oil company that stayed active in Venezuela through years of sanctions did raise its stake in an existing, separate joint venture with Venezuela’s state oil company to 49% earlier this year, but that arrangement was completed in the second quarter of 2026 and is not part of this new deal.
Is the deal legal under Venezuelan law?
Legal specialists have also raised questions about whether the arrangement is even permitted under Venezuelan law. Venezuela’s constitution treats hydrocarbon resources as inalienable public property, and the country’s Hydrocarbons Law requires the state oil company, PDVSA, to hold a majority stake in any joint venture. David Goldwyn of Goldwyn Global Strategies has said there is no precedent for the US government to enter a lease of this kind to help operate foreign oil fields, and it remains unclear whether the deal has, or needs, authorization from Venezuela’s National Assembly.
Criticism of the deal
The announcement has drawn direct criticism from several quarters.
Watchdogs and analysts
Watchdog and policy critics have questioned the deal’s substance: Tyler Slocum of the advocacy group Public Citizen called the arrangement a symptom of “bilateral transactional corruption” and urged Congress to intervene, Francisco Rodríguez — not related to Venezuela’s interim president — of the Center for Economic and Policy Research argued that Venezuela’s National Assembly should refuse to authorize the deal, calling it “predatory,” and Gregory Brew, an analyst at Eurasia Group, described the structure as “colonial.”
In Congress
In Congress, the criticism has taken a different form. House Oversight Democrats led by Rep. Robert Garcia have demanded that the administration disclose the deal’s terms and account for roughly $13 billion in earlier Venezuelan oil-sale proceeds held in a Treasury-supervised account controlled by Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Garcia’s office has also called the US military operation that captured Maduro in January 2026 — detailed below — “unconstitutional” and “illegal.”
How we got here
The deal was announced almost eight months after the January 2026 operation that captured Maduro. On Jan. 3, 2026, US forces captured then-President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flew them to the United States, where they face federal narco-terrorism and drug-trafficking charges. Maduro was arraigned in the Southern District of New York and pleaded not guilty; a federal judge declined to dismiss the indictment in late March 2026, though challenges over jurisdiction and head-of-state immunity are still pending. He has not been convicted. Two days after Maduro’s capture, Rodriguez — his vice president since 2018 and a longtime figure in Venezuela’s governing Chavismo movement, who had previously run the country’s oil ministry — was sworn in as interim president. The deal was negotiated with Rodriguez’s interim government, not Maduro’s.
Timeline
- Jan. 3, 2026 — US forces capture Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and fly them to the US to face federal narco-terrorism and drug-trafficking charges.
- Two days later — Delcy Rodriguez is sworn in as interim president.
- Late March 2026 — A federal judge declines to dismiss Maduro’s indictment; jurisdiction and immunity challenges remain pending.
- Second quarter of 2026 — Chevron completes an increase in its stake in a separate, existing Venezuela joint venture to 49%.
- Aug. 28, 2026 — Trump announces the new oil deal, calling it “the biggest oil deal in world history.”
What happens next
For now, the deal’s legal status remains unclear: Trump described it as secured, but no full contract has been released and its legal and financial structure has not been disclosed. Whether the arrangement is compatible with Venezuela’s laws and receives any required authorization remains unresolved.
Sources and further reading
- Ranking Member Robert Garcia Expands Investigation into Venezuelan Oil Deal, Demands Answers from Trump Administration
- FACT SHEET: President Trump is Restoring Prosperity, Safety and Security for the United States and Venezuela
- The United States’ Prosecution of Nicolas Maduro Moros: United States v. Maduro
- newsonair.gov.in
- Chevron consolidates Venezuela heavy oil position in asset swap