President Trump announced what he called the biggest oil deal in history, securing U.S. majority control over 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves, a move one veteran energy trader says will drive down gas prices for a generation.
Trump made the announcement on Truth Social on Friday, saying the United States had entered an agreement with Venezuela that "MORE THAN DOUBLES American Oil Reserves, greatly increases our Oil Supply, and will substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans, long into the future." The deal, structured through a partnership with private business, came at no cost to the American taxpayer, Fox News reported.
The agreement grants the U.S. 55% effective output of a new private company with 100-year rights to develop 17 oil fields across Venezuela, AP News reported. If fully realized, the venture would become the second-largest corporate holder of proven oil reserves on the planet, behind only Saudi Aramco.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth negotiated the deal at Trump's direction, working with Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez. Rubio posted on X that the agreement was a "huge win" for both countries that "demonstrates how President Trump's bold foreign policy is driving America First wins: securing stable reserves and low-cost oil in our Hemisphere and lowering gas prices here at home."
Phil Flynn, an oil trader and Fox Business contributor, appeared on Fox & Friends Weekend and laid out why the deal matters beyond the headline number. Flynn called it a generational shift in America's energy position:
"I think this is a win. It's a generational win for Americans because it is [going to] lead to a generation of low prices."
Flynn pointed to one concern that has dogged energy watchers for years, the drawdown of America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The SPR recently fell below 300 million barrels, a four-decade low, the New York Post reported. Flynn framed the Venezuela deal as a direct answer to that vulnerability:
"A lot of people are worried about us drawing down our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Now we have the biggest strategic petroleum reserve in history. It's called Venezuela."
He also argued the agreement benefits Venezuela. "The United States has the technology and the people to develop those oil fields unlike anything Venezuela has been ever able to do in history," Flynn said.
But Flynn tempered expectations about the timing. He cautioned that Americans should not expect an overnight drop at the pump. "If you're looking for gasoline prices to fall 10 cents overnight, probably not [going to] happen," he said, though he added that "psychologically it will put some downward pressure on prices."
The deal arrives at a moment when American drivers are feeling real pain. U.S. gas prices averaged $4.09 per gallon at the time of the announcement, up from $3.21 a year earlier. Much of that increase stems from the ongoing U.S.-Israel war against Iran and its disruption of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, Breitbart reported.
Venezuela sits on roughly 303 billion barrels of crude oil, about 17% of the world's supply and the largest proven reserves of any nation. But decades of socialist mismanagement gutted the country's production capacity. Venezuela now produces only about 1% of global oil output despite holding those staggering reserves.
That gap between potential and performance is exactly what the deal aims to close. The agreement brings nearly $100 billion in private investment into Venezuela's oil sector, according to the New York Post. Energy Secretary Chris Wright framed the arrangement in practical terms, telling reporters: "Instead of the oil being blockaded, as it is right now, we're gonna let the oil flow... to United States refineries and around the world to bring better oil supplies, but have those sales done by the U.S. government," the Washington Examiner reported.
None of this would have been possible under Venezuela's previous leadership. The United States launched a military operation in January to capture then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Trump and Rubio monitored the operation from Mar-a-Lago on January 3. Maduro's removal triggered a transition of power that brought Delcy Rodriguez into the interim presidency and opened the door to negotiations.
The first tangible result came quickly. By late February, the U.S. completed its first Venezuelan oil sale, valued at $500 million, with officials confirming that sales would continue "indefinitely." Trump spoke at the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas, on February 27 near an oil tanker that had arrived from Venezuela.
Friday's announcement formalizes a far larger, longer-term arrangement, one that locks in American access to Venezuelan fields for a century.
For all the scale of the deal on paper, experts caution that translating 65 billion barrels of proven reserves into actual barrels flowing to American refineries will take time. Venezuela's oil infrastructure is severely damaged after years of neglect, corruption, and mismanagement under Maduro's socialist regime. Meaningful increases in production are years away, not months.
Flynn acknowledged as much. He described the deal's near-term effect as more psychological than physical, a signal to global oil markets that American supply is expanding and that the geopolitical conflicts keeping prices elevated "are starting to come to an end."
The structural questions remain unanswered. Which private companies will partner with the U.S. government? What does "majority control" mean in precise legal terms, an ownership stake, operational authority, or something else? How does the deal affect Venezuela's existing oil contracts with China and Russia? None of those details appeared in the announcement.
What did appear was the bottom line: the United States, paying nothing from the federal treasury, just positioned itself to control more proven oil reserves than any entity on Earth except Saudi Arabia's state oil company. Whether the barrels flow next year or five years from now, the strategic calculus has shifted.
For decades, American energy policy oscillated between dependence on hostile foreign suppliers and a domestic drilling boom that still left the country vulnerable to global price shocks. This deal, if its terms hold, points in a different direction, one where the Western Hemisphere's largest reserves sit under American influence, developed by American technology, and priced for American consumers.
When the people who actually trade oil for a living call something a generational win, the rest of Washington ought to pay attention.
