Massive US-Venezuela Oil Pact Raises Questions About Who Truly Benefits

The oil agreement between the United States and Venezuela, which secures American access to more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves, promises significant advantages for both nations.

Washington would gain entry to vast petroleum resources, while Venezuela could obtain much-needed capital and technology to revitalize its oil industry and stabilize its fragile economy.

U.S. President Donald Trump described it as “the biggest oil deal in the history of the world.” Venezuelan experts emphasize that the reserves remain state property; foreign companies would receive rights to develop fields, extract oil, and commercialize their share. However, as the details of the arrangement remain undisclosed, it has stirred shared concern among Venezuelans who normally stand on opposite sides of the country’s deep political divide.

Why We Wrote This

Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and yet, schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and pensions have seen little investment in recent years. Could a U.S. oil deal change that?

Days after its announcement, the agreement remains opaque. No full contract has been published. The pact covers 17 fields containing the tens of billions of barrels, but it is unclear which companies would operate them, how revenue would be divided, or how much private capital has been committed.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said Saturday the agreement would last 25 years, target more than 1.5 million barrels per day, and could generate about $209 billion for Venezuela.

U.S. officials have separately said a new company would receive rights to the fields for 100 years. It remains unclear how that relates to the 25-year agreement described by Ms. Rodríguez.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, left, chats Paula Henao, Venezuela’s hydrocarbons minister, during the signing an agreement to allow oil giant Chevron to expand its operations in Venezuela, in Caracas, April 13, 2026.

She says Venezuela will retain sovereignty over its resources and that foreign capital could create jobs and improve public services. The ruling United Socialist Party has backed the agreement.

What do Venezuelans want?

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves. But despite this proximity to wealth, over the past 15 years, the country has endured economic collapse and has seen poverty grow and public services fail. Communities are also still rebuilding after two devastating earthquakes in June.

With Mr. Trump’s announcement, public schoolteacher Belkis Marín, who receives $1 per month as a pension, is concerned about what Venezuelans will get out of this.

She wants oil revenue to reach schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and pensions.

“I’m not saying the U.S. can’t benefit” from Venezuelan oil, she says. “But we should benefit, too. And we don’t really know if we will.”

On Saturday, supporters of late former President Hugo Chávez protested in Caracas against what they called excessive U.S. influence.

“Will this agreement benefit workers?” asks Oswaldo Rivero, a former chavista activist. If it helps the people of Venezuela, “then I welcome it,” Mr. Rivero says, though he worries about Ms. Rodríguez’s close relationship with Washington. It clashes with the anti-imperialist tradition of Chavismo, as Mr. Chávez’s political movement came to be known.

Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in the 1970s. Under Mr. Chávez, high oil prices funded expansive social programs, but production later collapsed amid mismanagement, loss of skilled workers, underinvestment, U.S. sanctions, and the deterioration of state-run oil firm Petróleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA.

A sculpture of a hand holding an oil rig stands outside the state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, in Caracas, March 21, 2023.

Today, Venezuela produces roughly 1.25 million barrels a day, a fraction of its historic capacity.

The announced agreement emphasizes spectacular figures without the detail normally attached to a major petroleum project, says Rafael Gallegos, who spent 23 years at PDVSA. He was among thousands dismissed after a 2002-03 oil industry strike.

A conventional agreement, he says, would specify fields, investment, production targets, costs, and timelines. He warns against confusing enormous reserves with production.

“We don’t know anything,” he says. “The reserves are underground. Who is going to get them out?”

Venezuela’s drilling capacity has shrunk dramatically as wells, pipelines, and processing systems need rehabilitation. Mr. Gallegos estimates rebuilding the sector could require $15 billion to $20 billion annually – for years.

That money is not guaranteed. Major oil companies remain wary after past expropriations and weak legal protections. The Trump administration says private companies will finance the expansion, but no broad commitment has materialized.

Legal uncertainty could scare off major producers, leaving smaller companies to pursue fields they might lack the capital or technology to develop at scale, says Eddie Ramírez, a former national coordinator for Gente del Petróleo, an association of Venezuelan oil professionals.

Democracy vs. oil?

Companies will have to weigh not only the economics but whether contracts signed now would survive a political transition, Mr. Ramírez says.

That uncertainty links the economics of the deal to Venezuela’s political future.

Ricardo Hausmann, an economist at Harvard Kennedy School and a former Venezuelan finance minister, has accused Washington of prioritizing Venezuelan oil over democratic change.

In a public message to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Dr. Hausmann called the agreement an “asset grab” made with a government he argues lacks the constitutional legitimacy to make such a long-term commitment.

“This announced deal will not stand,” he wrote.

Argenis Cardona, a Venezuelan immigrant living in Barcelona, sees the benefit of reopening Venezuela to foreign investment, but he worries about what Ms. Rodríguez’s government might have received politically in exchange.

For many opponents of the current government, the U.S. operation that captured former President Nicolás Maduro in January raised hopes of competitive elections and a democratic transition. Earlier this month, the interim government and Venezuela’s opposition began discussing a road map for new elections.

“What worries me,” Mr. Cardona says, “is that this was the bargaining chip that Delcy Rodríguez gave to remain in power indefinitely.”

Still, Venezuela needs foreign capital, and the U.S. is a natural market for its heavy crude. Mr. Gallegos himself favors a larger role for private and international companies. His objection is not foreign investment but opaque contracting.

The debate inside Venezuela keeps returning to the question of whether a new era of oil wealth can finally reach ordinary citizens.

“Who defends [citizen] interests?” asks Ms. Marín, the former teacher. “We Venezuelans ourselves will have to.”

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