Opposition economist calls deal ‘unconstitutional’ as election-pressure push continues
The Trump administration is in advanced talks with Venezuela for the U.S. to take a direct stake in 17 of the country’s oil-and-gas fields, according to people familiar with the matter. The proposed deal would cover fields holding about 90 billion barrels of proven reserves, nearly twice the U.S. total. Axios reported on the talks earlier Thursday.
News of the talks drew criticism from some in Venezuela’s opposition, who have been pushing for the U.S. to pressure interim President Delcy Rodríguez to hold elections. “An illegitimate interim government with an illegitimate hydrocarbons law has no legitimacy to strike this unconstitutional deal,” Ricardo Hausmann, a Harvard University economist and former government official in Venezuela, wrote on X. “It will be a fiasco for all involved, starting with [Secretary of State Marco Rubio].”
A deal would give the U.S. a foothold in at least 17 of Venezuela’s most promising oil-and-gas fields and could pave the way for independent U.S. energy producers to become involved in oil production, according to people familiar with the matter. Details remain unsettled, and the deal could fall apart, these people said. The U.S. and Venezuela are still working out whether the U.S. would create joint ventures with private companies or hire companies to work the oil fields, according to one of the people.
Venezuela says it has 300 billion barrels of proven reserves, the largest in the world. The fields covered by the proposed deal hold some 90 billion barrels of proven reserves, almost twice that of the U.S.
Major U.S. oil companies have yet to make any significant new investments in Venezuela since the U.S. ousted Maduro in January, and the country’s oil production has been slow to ramp up. Venezuela has been pumping about 1.1 million barrels a day, roughly in line with last year’s figures. The deal could give companies on the fence about investing in Venezuela’s oil sector a reason to move forward, according to people familiar with the matter, after years of underinvestment that degraded the sector under the governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro.
A deal could also help meet energy-security needs in the Western Hemisphere, according to people familiar with the matter, at a time when the Iran war has restricted flow through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for a significant portion of the world’s oil and gas.
Since the U.S. ousted Maduro in January, the Trump administration has overseen aspects of Venezuela’s oil industry, replacing Maduro with Rodríguez.
Direct U.S. involvement in foreign oil production is rare. During World War II, the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt created a state company to obtain foreign reserves and sought to buy a U.S. company with concessions in Saudi Arabia, but the effort ultimately failed.
The White House did not immediately comment, nor did the office of Delcy Rodríguez.