US to Gain Majority Control of Venezuela's Oil Reserves in Historic Deal

The US is set to take majority control over a huge amount of Venezuela’s oil wealth in an unprecedented manoeuvre that officials said would create the world’s second-largest private oil company by reserves and secure American petroleum supplies for decades to come. President Donald Trump made the announcement about the arrangement in a Truth Social post on Friday night. It represents his latest move to establish US dominance over the Western Hemisphere, countering years of inroads by China, as part of his embrace of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine. Working with Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, a partnership with private business secured majority US control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves in Venezuela, Trump said. A US official said the country will control 55% of the effective output from the joint venture, and will obtain the oil at cost. The plan represents an unparalleled modern-day intervention into the economy of a South American country Trump once called the 51st US state, harkening back to British control of Iran’s oil fields and the division of Iraqi assets among US and European nations. It marks the culmination of a campaign in which the US captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, in Jan, seized Venezuelan oil tankers and struck several boats allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing over 200 people. It’s also an untested manoeuvre — one that could be vulnerable to legal challenges and political shifts in Washington. It’s not clear that Trump’s arrangement would be fully embraced by a future American president, or how it might endure any future political upheaval in Venezuela.Based on a Bloomberg report.