{"id":1714,"date":"2026-08-30T08:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T08:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1714"},"modified":"2026-08-30T08:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T08:16:19","slug":"trump-administration-reportedly-nearing-deal-to-take-over-venezuelan-oil-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1714","title":{"rendered":"Trump Administration Reportedly Nearing Deal to Take Over Venezuelan Oil Fields"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Trump administration officials are claiming that talks between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Venezuelan government regarding control of the country\u2019s oil fields will ultimately secure \u201cAmerica\u2019s energy future for generations to come\u201d \u2014 but analysts on Friday called on lawmakers to halt President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201ccolonial\u201d push to take over the reserves.<\/p>\n

As Axios<\/em> reported, officials including Rubio and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller have been involved in talks with Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodriguez about taking an ownership stake in more than a dozen oil fields in the Orinoco Belt and Lake Maracaibo regions, which have about 90 billion barrels of oil reserves. In all, Venezuela\u2019s vast reserves \u2014 the world\u2019s largest \u2014 contain about 300 billion barrels.<\/p>\n

The deal would double US oil reserves at a time when Americans have seen gas prices skyrocket and oil firms reap profits as a result of Trump\u2019s war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 events to which countries that have expanded renewable energy sources have proven far more resilient, according to data from JP Morgan Commodities research.<\/p>\n

Despite that resilience, the Trump administration has reportedly approached the talks as a way to lock the US into generations of continued reliance on planet-heating oil extraction. According to Bloomberg, one deal under consideration is a 100-year lease on the oil fields.<\/p>\n

Axios reported that in return for giving the US an ownership stake \u2014 something Trump began privately discussing before US forces invaded Venezuela and abducted President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in January \u2014 Venezuela \u201cwould benefit from private companies, including American firms, developing the fields and returning more oil revenue\u201d to the South American country.<\/p>\n

Tyler Slocum, director of Public Citizen\u2019s energy program, said that if the deal is finalized, \u201cTrump will likely transfer operational control to US oil companies,\u201d which donated heavily to his campaign.<\/p>\n

The proposed deal would open \u201cthe door to Trump\u2019s typical bilateral transactional corruption\u201d and bestow \u201clucrative opportunities for the oil companies he chooses to reward,\u201d said Slocum.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn the nearly eight months since Trump\u2019s illegal January 2026 Venezuelan invasion, the Trump administration has managed a $13 billion slush fund gleaned from its control over Venezuelan oil sales, with zero transparency, and little to no public oversight or accounting,\u201d Slocum continued. \u201cThe president has no authority to negotiate a deal where the federal government takes control over foreign oil production facilities, and Congress must intervene and put an end to Trump\u2019s oil-fueled imperialism.\u201d<\/p>\n

One opposition leader in Venezuela, where Energy Secretary Chris Wright is expected to travel next week to discuss increasing oil production by US companies, said the deals currently being discussed amount to \u201ca land grab \u2014 a massive land grab.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francisco Rodr\u00edguez, a senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and author of The Collapse of Venezuela<\/em>, said the country\u2019s National Assembly \u201cshould deny authorization for this predatory deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following Trump\u2019s invasion of Venezuela in January, energy historian and Eurasia Group analyst Gregory Brew told The Guardian, \u201cUS dominance over Venezuelan oil reserves allows the US to regard Venezuelan reserves as its own reserves: a source of oil from which the United States can draw and that nobody else has access to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s how the administration is conceiving of this \u2014 excluding China, excluding Russia, but I think also excluding other potential customers for Venezuelan oil,\u201d Brew said. \u201cIt sounds colonial, because it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s \u201ceffort to establish a South American kleptocracy is an outrage,\u201d said Slocum. \u201cThere\u2019s been no improvement in human rights in Venezuela, so Trump\u2019s move is further evidence that his illegal actions in Venezuela are all about controlling oil with no public accounting, transparency, or oversight. This is yet another Trump gift for Big Oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cCongress must intervene and put an end to Trump\u2019s oil-fueled imperialism,\u201d said an analyst with Public Citizen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Administration Reportedly Nearing Deal to Take Over Venezuelan Oil Fields - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1714\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Administration Reportedly Nearing Deal to Take Over Venezuelan Oil Fields - 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