Another Rip-off Deal of the Century
On August 28, 2026 Trump announced what he himself called the largest oil deal in the history of the world. And this time, Trump’s customary love of superlatives does not look entirely like advertising confiscation.
The deal concerns 17 Venezuelan oil fields with a proven potential of more than 65 billion barrels, whose development rights are to be granted to a new structure involving the US government and a private operator that has not yet been named.
Venezuela’s total proven oil reserves are estimated at approximately 303 billion barrels. In other words, the new structure covers about one-fifth of the country’s total proven reserves.
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We can breathe easy. Just one-fifth or 20% of the total Venezuelan oil reserves will be confiscated by Rockefeller’s oil companies like Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Exxon-Mobile.
It is worth understanding what that one-fifth means in ordinary numbers. In 2025, the United States, the world’s largest oil producer, produced a record average of 13.6 million barrels of crude oil per day. Over a year, that amounts to roughly 5 billion barrels.
Thus, 65 billion barrels represent about 13 years of current US crude oil production. Meanwhile, total US consumption of oil and petroleum products in 2025 amounted to approximately 7.52 billion barrels for the year.
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In other words, the Venezuelan package deal is equivalent to roughly eight and a half years of all current US oil consumption.
Naturally, those 65 billion barrels cannot be pumped out tomorrow morning, and a significant portion consists of heavy crude requiring expensive production and refining.
But the scale of the prize becomes somewhat clearer. This is not just another oil field. It is a state-scale oil asset.
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And there is another figure after which the phrase largest deal starts to look less like advertising. According to a US official, the new company will become the world’s second-largest corporate oil structure by controlled proven reserves, behind Saudi Aramco.
In other words, only a few months ago, American oil companies were explaining to Trump that Venezuela was too risky for investment. Now they are being invited to enter not merely as foreign investors, but under the umbrella of a structure whose reserves would rank second only to Saudi Arabia’s oil giant.
Apparently, risk can be treated. Sometimes all it takes is aircraft carriers, a new law and a 100-year contract.
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The Venezuelan Oil is already flowing towards the USA
Venezuelan oil is already flowing to the United States, and in a fairly substantial stream.
US Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle Hausthwait said in August that Venezuela is currently producing about 1.25 million barrels of oil per day, while more than 500,000 barrels a day are being sent to US refineries, many of which are specifically equipped to process heavy Venezuelan crude.
That means more than 40% of Venezuela’s current production is already going to the United States. Hausthwait himself rounded the figure up to “about half.”
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Is that a lot or a little? It depends on what you compare it with. The United States itself currently produces approximately 13.8 million barrels of oil per day. So the current Venezuelan flow represents only about 3.6% of America’s own production. For the United States as a whole, that may seem relatively small.
But for someone else, it is a great deal. To understand the scale: more than 500,000 barrels per day is roughly 70% of Poland’s total daily oil consumption, or about one-third of the consumption of France or the United Kingdom.
In other words, the current Venezuelan flow to the United States is already more than a symbolic supply. It is a volume that would almost be enough to supply one of Central Europe’s largest countries with oil.
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And that is only the current level. The goal of the new structure is to sharply increase production after wells, pipelines, power grids, terminals and refining capacity are restored. In other words, today’s 500,000 barrels are not the final result of the deal. They are more like a warm-up.
Billions for the People?
The most interesting part began after the deal was announced: all the interested parties immediately rushed to calculate future profits — each for its own audience.
The government of Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, said the new arrangement could bring the country more than $209 billion in tax revenues. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for his part, spoke of nearly $100 billion in future private investment in Venezuela’s oil industry.
The picture looks like universal happiness: Venezuela receives $100 billion in investment and $200 billion in taxes, America gets cheap oil, corporations get fields and contracts, and the White House gets an opportunity to tell American voters that gasoline will someday become cheap again.
The only problem is one small word — “someday.”
Venezuela’s oil infrastructure is so badly degraded that production cannot be significantly increased quickly. Wells need to be restored, pipelines repaired, the power system rebuilt, equipment replaced, and roads and terminals constructed.
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Experts warn that it will take years and tens of billions of dollars before those 65 billion barrels begin to have a noticeable impact on American gas pumps. But that does not mean everyone involved in the project will have to patiently wait for the result.
The mere emergence of long-term guarantees, access to enormous reserves and a project of this scale provides a powerful boost to American oil businesses — service companies, contractors, equipment manufacturers, banks, insurers and investment funds.
And wherever major investments appear, the opportunity to make money almost always follows, particularly when those investments are additionally protected by Washington’s political and government guarantees. So, of course, nobody is going to wait 100 years.
The oil still has to be produced, pipelines restored and infrastructure built, but the first contracts, loans, fees and profits can emerge today.
The Constitution gets in the Way
There is, however, one small legal inconvenience. It is called the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Article 12 is fairly unequivocal: mineral and hydrocarbon deposits belong to the Republic, are part of the public domain and are inalienable. Moreover, Article 13 separately states that the national territory cannot be transferred, ceded or leased to foreign states.
Of course, the right to develop a field is not the same as formally transferring ownership of the oil beneath the ground, and it is probably on such legal distinctions that the entire structure will be based.
But when the issue involves 100-year rights, 65 billion barrels and a controlling American interest, the discussion becomes somewhat more interesting than an ordinary legal dispute over wording.
Former Venezuelan planning minister and Harvard professor Ricardo Hausmann has already called the agreement unconstitutional and said the interim government lacks the legitimacy to conclude a deal of such magnitude.
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The Washington Post writes that changes to Venezuela’s Constitution may actually be required to implement the American arrangement.
But I think this is precisely the kind of situation in which lawyers will find the necessary words. Especially if we remember that Nicolás Maduro is currently in an American prison and does not acknowledge the charges against him.
Venezuela’s new leadership therefore has a very strong incentive to read American proposals carefully and find a lawful way to reconcile them with the little misunderstanding that sometimes arises between big business and the text of a constitution.
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After all, constitutions are written by people, too. And people sometimes know how to write amendments.
Announce it First
Another circumstance makes the situation particularly piquant: the public still has not been shown the full legal structure of the “largest oil deal in world history.”
Trump has already announced victory, the number of fields has been named, 65 billion barrels have been counted, 100 years have been specified, future investments and taxes have been distributed, yet a significant portion of the specific financial terms — and even the name of the private operator of the new company — remain unknown.
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The AP explicitly notes that key details have yet to be disclosed. In other words, the largest oil deal in world history already exists politically, but is still being formalized legally.
For modern politics, however, this is almost a normal sequence.
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Business, however, understood the direction of the wind quickly. Chevron is already negotiating the transfer of all its Venezuelan joint ventures into the country’s new energy system, which should give the American company greater control over operations and the further expansion of its projects.
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The company’s largest Venezuelan project, Petropiar, is expanding into the neighboring Ayacucho 8 block.
Another area of the Orinoco oil belt is being discussed for the expansion of another project, while Chevron, Venezuela’s Ministry of Hydrocarbons and state-owned PdVSA are considering adding another new oil zone to the portfolio.
Chevron has also already increased its stake in another Venezuelan joint venture, Petroindependencia, to 49%.
In other words, American oil companies are gradually returning to the country from which nationalization policies once pushed them out, only now the terms look considerably more attractive, and behind the legal contract stands not merely a contract but the full political weight of Washington.
That really could change the country’s investment rating faster than any Moody’s presentation.
Goodbye, OPEC?
At the same time, another almost symbolic story has emerged. Venezuela is considering leaving OPEC — the organization it helped create more than six decades ago. According to Bloomberg, the issue has already been discussed with American officials.
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No final decision has been made, and Reuters separately emphasizes that it was unable to independently confirm the information. So it is still too early to bury Venezuela’s OPEC membership.
But the very fact that the question is being raised is highly revealing. A country that for decades was one of the symbols of oil nationalism and independent energy policy is discussing leaving the oil cartel it helped create at precisely the moment when Washington is gaining unprecedented access to its oil fields.
Some American officials are already discussing the creation of a kind of Western Hemisphere oil bloc that could reduce OPEC’s influence.
A coincidence, of course. There are remarkably many of them in great-power politics.
The Word ‘Reparations’
This is where the word that modern diplomacy tries to pronounce as rarely as possible comes into play — reparations. No, Venezuela has not formally capitulated to the United States. There is no document titled “Act of Surrender.”
There is no table stating how many million tons of oil the defeated party must ship to the victor every year. On the contrary, everything is presented in thoroughly modern terms: development, partnership, investment, tax revenues, restoration of the energy sector, jobs and economic prosperity.
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Only the sequence of events turns out to be somewhat inconvenient.
First, the American military captures the sitting president of Venezuela and takes him to the United States. Then the new leadership radically changes oil legislation and opens the industry to private capital.
A few months later, Washington announces a 100-year agreement covering 17 fields and 65 billion barrels, with the American side receiving 55% of effective output and the ability to purchase some of the oil at cost.
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Of course, this can be called a coincidence of favorable investment circumstances. But the word “reparations” keeps somehow turning up on the tip of the tongue.
Peace as Business
So perhaps Donald Trump’s greatest political talent has nothing to do with whether he loves wars or genuinely dreams of peace. Something else is much more interesting: he looks at international relations roughly the way a developer looks at a valuable piece of land.
What is located here? Who owns it? How much is it worth? What kind of agreement can be signed? Who will be the operator? What share can be obtained? And most importantly — when will all of this start generating money?
From this perspective, Ukraine and its natural resources, the Armenian TRIPP route for almost a century, the Gulf’s multi-trillion-dollar deals, the sudden American interest in controlling the Strait of Hormuz and, finally, Venezuela’s 65 billion barrels all become much easier to understand.
Trump really does want peace. It would simply be preferable if the peace agreement came with a business plan attached.
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Everything is Legal
That is precisely why the word “reparations” has almost disappeared from international politics.
It sounds unattractive. It is much nicer to talk about reconstruction, strategic partnership, joint development, an investment fund and a route to peace and prosperity. The meaning, however, sometimes remains remarkably familiar.
In the past, the victor simply looted everything it had conquered. In the 20th century, it removed factories, equipment, patents and specialists. In the 21st century, it invites consultants, registers a joint venture and obtains a controlling stake.
And most importantly — everything is legal.
Well, almost everything.
Pravda / ABC Flash Point News 2026.
What a heist !
First kidnapping Maduro, using him as ransom to force an oil deal. Changing the election and prisoner laws to release convicted DEA and CIA criminals, makes me wonder if the Bolivarian president and his wife are still alive ?