U.S. Officials Say Venezuela Oil Deal Runs 100 Years and Gives Washington 55% of Output, Contradicting Caracas

The United States and Venezuela have now described the same oil agreement in terms that cannot both be right. American officials briefing reporters after President Donald Trump's announcement said Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, granted a private joint venture a 100-year concession over fields holding 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, with the United States government controlling 55% of effective output through a mix of equity in the venture and the right to buy oil from it at cost. Bloomberg reported the same structure and characterized it as a return to the resource-control arrangements the industry used in the region a century ago. One U.S. official said the venture would hold more proven reserves than any corporate owner except Saudi Aramco.

Rodríguez had told Venezuelans that the accord runs for 25 years and preserves ownership and sovereignty over the fields, and that $19 from every barrel sold to the United States flows to Caracas. She put the state's take at about $209 billion, calculated against a benchmark price of $65 a barrel. The two accounts agree on the commercial details: 17 strategic fields, an initial target of 1.5 million barrels a day, and the $19 per barrel. They diverge on duration and on who controls production. Neither government has published the contract.

Both capitals face domestic objections. In Caracas, government supporters marched against the American presence, and Venezuelans interviewed by The Associated Press called the arrangement a reversal of three decades of resource nationalism. In Washington, Senator Tim Kaine called the deal "corruption at epic scale," while Senator Bernie Moreno said it benefits both countries. House Democrats have written to 21 oil and oilfield services companies warning that transactions relying on the administration's asserted authority over Venezuelan assets carry legal risk under Congress's war powers and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Chevron, the only American producer currently operating in Venezuela, declined to comment.

The physical constraint has not changed. Venezuelan output has run far below 1.5 million barrels a day for years because refineries, pipelines and export terminals degraded under sanctions and underinvestment, and restoring them takes capital, service companies and time. Brent crude ended Friday near $88 a barrel, little changed on the day. The longer concession changes the legal and political exposure of anyone who invests, not the engineering schedule.