Friday, August 28th 2026 - 14:15 UTC
The negotiation covers around a dozen fields holding some 90 billion barrels of proven reserves, close to a third of the roughly 300 billion Venezuela has certified, the world's largest
The United States government is negotiating with Venezuela's interim administration to acquire stakes in a group of the South American country's oil fields, under arrangements that would include leases of up to a hundred years, the outlets Axios and Bloomberg reported on Thursday citing unnamed senior US officials.
Neither side has confirmed the talks. The White House declined to comment and referred questions to the Department of Energy, which did not respond. Nor did Venezuela's oil ministry, the state oil company PDVSA or the information ministry, and hydrocarbons minister Paula Henao could not be reached.
According to the sources cited by Axios, the negotiation covers around a dozen fields holding some 90 billion barrels of proven reserves, close to a third of the roughly 300 billion Venezuela has certified, the world's largest. A list of 17 fields seen by the Reuters news agency includes new areas in the Orinoco Belt and mature fields in Lake Maracaibo, some currently operated by a Chinese company under a contract signed during Nicolás Maduro's tenure.
