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Venezuela Oil Deal: The 100-Year Term Nobody Led With
Trump announced on Truth Social on 28 August that the US has taken majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela's proven oil reserves, "at no cost to the American taxpayer." The headline number is the barrels. The term is a hundred years.
Reported terms (NPR, CNN): 17 fields, a new private company in which the US takes 55% of effective output plus the right to buy oil at cost, and 100-year development rights. The company would hold more proven reserves than any firm but Saudi Aramco. The private operator has not been named. The $100bn investment and $209bn tax figures are Caracas's own projections. NBC's on-air assessment is that the exact specifics remain unclear, and no contract has been published.
ExxonMobil's CEO called Venezuela "un-investable" in January 2026 — about the country, not about this deal. Nicolas Maduro was captured roughly nine months ago and is jailed in the US, where he has pleaded not guilty.
Footage: LiveNOW from FOX (28 Aug); Bloomberg Originals archive (Jan 2026).
The story
On Thursday night 28 August the president announced on Truth Social that the United States had taken majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela, "at no cost to the American taxpayer." Every outlet led with the barrel count. The number that decides the deal is 100: the rights to develop the seventeen fields run for a hundred years.
There was no signing ceremony and no published contract.
The reporting
Verified 2026-08-29. Angle: every outlet led with sixty five billion barrels. The number that decides this deal is one hundred. A hundred year concession, to a company nobody has named, announced in a social media post.
Sources
LiveNOW from FOX 6cIm6UvKIZ8 (28 Aug) · NBC News 16TBnaO7vuI (29 Aug) · Fox News FIa6XfpZZHA (29 Aug) · NPR/KPBS (28 Aug) · CNN (28 Aug) · Bloomberg Originals tuHUZjwt_8o (9 Jan, visuals only) · Fox News Clips V1PTr5iF4U8 (10 Jan, Exxon CEO, dated use only).
How this was verified — the rest of the fact sheet
7. CLOSE vz_7 (~14s)
There was no signing ceremony and no published contract. The biggest oil deal in world history arrived as a post, and the detail inside it is a hundred year claim on another country's oil.
Footage
Every clip in the reel, and where it came from.
- **LiveNOW from FOX** 2026-08-28
- Bloomberg Originals **2026-01-09**
- Fox News Clips **2026-01-10**
- Associated Press 2026-01-16
- CNBC-TV18 2026-01-07
- DWS News 2026-02-11
- DRM News 2026-01-07
- DRM News 2026-01-07
- AP Archive 2026-02-04
References
What the reel says
Narration as scripted and voiced.
On Thursday night, the president announced that the United States has taken majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela. He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth negotiated it with Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, and that it cost the American taxpayer nothing.
That is the headline, and it is the smaller number. The deal covers 17 oil fields. The rights to develop them run for 100 years. A century is the actual term of this agreement, and almost nobody led with it.
Here is the shape of it. The United States partners with a private operator to create a new company. Washington takes 55 % of that company's effective output and ownership stake and the right to buy the oil at cost. On paper, that new company would hold more proven reserves than any corporation on Earth except Saudi Aramco. The operator has not been named.
The money figures come from the other side of the table. Caracas puts the inbound investment at about $100 billion and its own tax take at more than $209 billion. Those are projections from the announcement, not receipts.
And the oil is not waiting at the surface. In January, the chief executive of ExxonMobil called Venezuela uninvestable. Energy analysts say any real increase in production takes years and billions of dollars first because the pipelines, the pumps, and the refineries have to be rebuilt before a single extra barrel moves.
All of this sits nine months after American forces captured Nicolas Maduro and flew him to the United States, where he is jailed on narco -terrorism and drug trafficking charges and has pleaded not guilty. The government that signed this deal is the government that replaced him.
There was no signing ceremony and no published contract. The biggest oil deal in world history arrived as a post, and the detail inside it is a hundred -year claim on another country's oil.
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