The U.S. has sealed a deal with Venezuela to control more than 65 billion barrels of its proven oil reserves and America’s strategic national stocks are set to benefit, President Donald Trump announced Sunday.
The president took to social media to make clear his intentions that the U.S. will gain, stating the move continues his personal efforts to correct President Joe Biden’s mismanagement during his time as leader, declaring “One of the things I am going to do with the Venezuelan Oil is fill up the Strategic National Reserves which, because of Sleepy Joe Biden, has been virtually emptied. The “topping out” process will begin very shortly, and is a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States.”
Earlier the president wrote that the agreement would more than double American oil reserves and “substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans,” the BBC reports.
In a late-night address on Saturday, Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez affirmed the deal as one that would help her nation’s economic revival.
Trump vowed to tap into Venezuela’s reserves, the world’s largest, after the U.S. captured its then-President Nicolás Maduro back in January to stand trial on drug charges in New York.
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Rodriguez, who is Maduro’s former vice-president and who the U.S. backed following his capture, also said on Saturday the energy agreement with the U.S. would remain in force for 25 years.
Under the deal, the U.S. government will retain 55 percent control of a joint venture with an “experienced private operator in Venezuela”, a U.S. official told CBS News.