Trump’s Venezuela Oil Deal Is a Farce

Trump Can't Lower Gas Pump Prices Via Venezuelan Oil

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Analysis:

Trump’s Venezuela Oil Deal Is a Farce

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Analysis

Trump’s Venezuela Oil Deal Is a Farce

There aren’t 65 billion barrels, they won’t be lowering gas prices, and they won’t refill the SPR.

By **Keith Johnson**, a staff writer at *Foreign Policy* covering geoeconomics and energy.

!Three oil workers dressed in red uniform coveralls with matching red helmets are seen from the side as they cross a street. Between them, they carry a roughly three-foot-tall mini model of an oil rig decorated in the red, yellow, and blue field of stars colors of the Venezuelan flag.

*Three oil workers dressed in red uniform coveralls with matching red helmets are seen from the side as they cross a street. Between them, they carry a roughly three-foot-tall mini model of an oil rig decorated in the red, yellow, and blue field of stars colors of the Venezuelan flag.*

PDVSA oil workers carry a cardboard replica of an oil rig after the presentation of new oil reforms at an event in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 29. Jesus Vargas / Getty Images

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September 1, 2026, 5:29 PM

The Trump administration has managed, in its proposed oil “accord” with Venezuela, to combine its love for state crony capitalism with a yearning for 19th-century imperialism. It is the capstone of U.S. President Donald Trump’s *Weltanshauung.*

The oil agreement announced over the weekend between the United States and Venezuela is, from Washington’s point of view, meant to be the payoff for the January military operation and change of leaders (if not regime change) in Caracas. Trump proposed at the time to take Venezuela’s oil, as he had previously rued the United States’ failure to take Iraq’s oil. This is his effort to do so. And it has confused people across many continents.

The Trump administration has managed, in its proposed oil “accord” with Venezuela, to combine its love for

state crony capitalismwith a yearning for 19th-century

imperialism. It is the capstone of U.S. President Donald Trump’s

*Weltanshauung.*

The oil

agreementannounced over the weekend between the United States and Venezuela is, from Washington’s point of view, meant to be the payoff for the January military operation and change of leaders (if not regime change) in Caracas. Trump proposed at the time to take Venezuela’s oil, as he had previously rued the United States’ failure to

take Iraq’s oil. This is his effort to do so. And it has

confusedpeople across many continents.

As

announcedby the White House

, the deal would give the United States “control” over some 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil, with an eye to securing even more oil for feedstock for U.S. refineries, lowering U.S. fuel prices, and refilling the near-empty Strategic Petroleum Reserve that Trump and his predecessor

drained.

The Trump administration chose as its

vehiclefor this maneuver the second-largest operator in Venezuela, a Barbados-based

companyknown as North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP). That company is run

by Venezuelan businessman

Alejandro Betancourt, a friend of the regimes in both Caracas and Washington who has faced investigations in Venezuela, Spain, and Switzerland on suspicion of corruption and

money-laundering offenses. (NABEP’s legal counsel maintains that Betancourt “has never been charged with a crime in any jurisdiction.”)

Yet despite the Trump administration’s grand pronouncement that this agreement represents “

the biggest oil deal in world history,” the reality is that it won’t begin to affect gasoline prices this year or next; will do nothing to assuage voter concern ahead of midterms; and is not a solution to the emptying salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas, where U.S. strategic oil reserves are kept.

It also won’t likely ever come close to fruition—s

ince about 1976, no agreement with a foreign oil company has lasted a full term of a Venezuelan president, let alone that of the concession—and the dividends it pays, if any, will be exceedingly modest, risky, and costly.

Read More

*
*In a fuchsia blouse, Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, holds a red folder with the a golden seal and the words "ley de reforma de la ley organica de hidrocarburos."*
Venezuela Reformed Its Oil Law. Now What?
Caracas is trying desperately to boost investment in its oil patch, but it may be disappointed. !This article has an audio recording
Analysis
|
Keith Johnson

*
*A person hold a megaphone as a Venezuelan flag is behind them.*
Can Venezuela’s Opposition Find A Path to Power?
As Delcy Rodríguez clings to power, dissidents wonder who to trust.
Analysis
|
Ani Chkhikvadze

---

The problemswith this deal

are many.

One can start with the legality. The regime of interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez—the legatee of the country’s authoritarian former president, Nicolás Maduro—is,

accordingto Trump, “highly respected.” What she is not is the legitimate head of a legitimate Venezuelan government. That raises questions about the longevity of any of these agreements, as a future Venezuelan government could, and probably will, abrogate many of the terms. That is exactly the sort of thing that chills long-term, multibillion-dollar investments.

“There is an original sin, which is believing in keeping Delcy Rodríguez, who you yourself undermined. You got yourself into a pickle,” said Pedro Burelli, referring to Trump. Burelli is a former