Washington announces oil deal with Caracas: terms remain unverifiable

This is not a continuation of the piece published this morning on the six months of war in the Gulf and the stranded seafarers: it is a different story, opened on August 28, 2026 on another front.

Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social profile a deal with the Venezuelan government which, in the White House’s presentation, would grant the United States majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, through a new joint company (CNN en Español). The U.S. president called it “the greatest oil deal in world history” (transl. from Spanish).

The operational outlines were described by a White House official, speaking anonymously, to the same network: the effective control would concern 55% of the production of a joint private enterprise, and the Caracas government would have granted a private company century-long concessions on the fields. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on his X profile that the operation will bring almost one hundred billion dollars in private investment to Venezuela (La Nación).

On the Venezuelan side, president-designate Delcy Rodríguez welcomed the deal with a statement, arguing that it “will have a significant impact on the rebirth of our nation” (transl. from Spanish) (CNN en Español).

Here a limitation must be flagged that the reader should know before the figures. The sources reporting the news are numerous and in several languages, but the content of the agreement derives entirely from the two governments that signed it: the presidential announcement, the Caracas statement, the Secretary of State’s declaration, the official’s account. No text of the deal appears to have been published, and no independent verification of the terms — the 55% share, the century-long duration of the concessions, the one hundred billion in expected investments — is currently available. These are therefore claims by the parties, not established facts: the verified fact is the announcement, not what the announcement promises. Even the identity of the private company receiving the concessions does not appear in the sources consulted.

What can be measured is the context in which the announcement falls. In early August 2026 the United States’ strategic petroleum reserves fell below 300 million barrels: a shrinking national stockpile makes Washington’s interest in a basin of proven reserves of that size more understandable. On the opposite side, a Venezuelan government opening up to century-long concessions on its own fields is making a choice whose trade-offs cannot be calculated without the text.

Three questions remain open that will determine whether the deal produces real effects: who the private entity involved is, what U.S. authorizations are needed for the announced investments to be legally executable, and whether the agreement will undergo parliamentary passage in Venezuela. Redazione Zero will return to the story when a reviewable document exists or an independent source from the two parties emerges. In the meantime, the solid number of this day is only one: less than 300 million barrels in U.S. strategic reserves.

Sources: CNN en Español – announcement; CNN en Español – Caracas’ reaction; La Nación; Infobae; Anadolu Agency.