Interim President Delcy Rodríguez said the accord covers the development of 17 strategic oilfields and targets production of more than 1.5 million barrels a day, while eight additional greenfield blocks are planned under a wider expansion. She said the contractual structure safeguards Venezuela’s sovereignty over its natural resources.
That distinction is central because Venezuela’s constitution does not permit its oil deposits to be transferred into foreign ownership. Article 12 states that mineral and hydrocarbon deposits within national territory, territorial waters, the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf belong to the republic, form part of the public domain and are inalienable and non-transferable.
Trump announced on Friday that the United States had obtained “majority” control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan reserves through an arrangement involving private business. He said the transaction would more than double American oil reserves, increase supply and lower fuel prices, but the administration has not publicly released the full legal terms defining that control.
The language has created a potentially important divide between political description and legal structure. Foreign companies may participate in developing Venezuelan fields, operate projects and hold interests in ventures, but the hydrocarbons underground remain constitutionally owned by the Venezuelan state. Article 302 also reserves the petroleum industry to the state under national law, while Article 303 requires the state to retain all shares of Petróleos de Venezuela, although subsidiaries and joint ventures may include outside participation.
Rodríguez’s government has framed the agreement as an investment and production partnership rather than a transfer of sovereign assets. Venezuela’s foreign ministry said the arrangement for joint exploitation of oilfields and greenfield blocks was structured to preserve state sovereignty over the reserves.
Officials in Caracas have also stressed that foreign participation does not alter constitutional title to hydrocarbons before extraction. That principle matters because commercial rights can be extensive without amounting to ownership of the resource in the ground, leaving room for foreign operators while preserving the republic’s legal claim over the reserves themselves under law.
The deal is intended to revive an industry constrained by years of underinvestment, damaged infrastructure and sanctions. Venezuela holds about 303 billion barrels of proven crude reserves, the largest national total reported by OPEC, but production remains far below the peaks achieved before the sector’s prolonged deterioration.
Rodríguez said the bilateral programme alone was designed to lift output above 1.5 million barrels a day. She also projected that Venezuela could receive about $209 billion over the life of the agreement using an assumed oil price of $65 a barrel, while separate arrangements are being pursued with international companies including Chevron, Repsol, Eni, Shell and BP.
Trump has presented the agreement as a major gain for US energy security. On Sunday, he said Venezuelan oil obtained through the arrangement would be used to replenish the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has fallen to levels close to a four-decade low after substantial withdrawals in response to supply disruptions and geopolitical shocks.
Even so, increasing Venezuelan output substantially will require large investment, rehabilitation of ageing fields, pipelines, power systems and export facilities, and confidence that contracts will remain enforceable over their stated duration. Those constraints mean additional barrels are unlikely to reach world markets immediately on the scale implied by Washington’s political messaging.
The constitutional issue could also shape investor risk. Venezuela can grant time-limited concessions or contractual rights for exploitation of natural resources, provided the public interest is protected, but a transaction purporting to alienate the reserves themselves would conflict directly with Article 12.
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