Trump Says U.S. Has Deal for Control of Large Share of Venezuelas Oil

President Trump said late Friday that the United States had struck a deal to take majority control of a huge portion of Venezuela’s oil reserves.Any effort by the federal government to take a stake in another country’s oil fields would be highly unusual.It was not immediately clear what such an arrangement would look like or what Venezuela’s government might have agreed to.Mr.

Trump said in a social media post that the deal involved “a partnership with private business” and would give the United States control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.That is almost as much as all of the proven reserves in the United States, which is the world’s biggest oil producer.Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were involved in the negotiations, the president said.

Venezuela’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Trump administration has made Venezuela’s oil central to its campaign to expand U.S.influence over energy in the Western Hemisphere, where rising production has helped blunt the loss of oil coming out of the Middle East over the past six months because of the Iran war.Previous U.S.

leaders often shied away from any suggestion that gaining control of another country’s natural resources was a primary objective of U.S.military and foreign policy, wary of the international backlash.

But President Trump and some of his top advisers have made it clear that oil is an important part of their foray into Venezuela.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....