Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

America’s Greatest Show On Earth — Counted In Barrels Of Venezuelan Crude

Presidencia de Venezuela, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

There are oil deals, and then there are mega-oil deals. We’ve seen many examples of mega-deals in the past: Exxon buying Mobil and Chevron gobbling up Texaco in the late 1990s; more recently, Oxy’s buyout of Anadarko Petroleum and ExxonMobil’s purchase of Pioneer Natural Resources would qualify.

And then, there are oil deals that are so enormous they boggle the mind. The deal jointly announced by U.S. President Donald Trump and Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez late Friday stands alone as that magnitude of oil deal. As President Trump might say, there’s never been anything like it – many people are saying it.

It’s the greatest show on earth counted in barrels of Venezuelan crude — 65 billion barrels of proven reserves in 17 separate oil fields, to be exact. That’s the volume in which the U.S. now takes an ownership interest, more than doubling the size of America’s current proven oil reserves.

The implications boggle the mind. Voters in 2024 said they wanted a change in direction of U.S. energy policy and boy did they get it. Twenty months into the second Trump presidency, the climate alarm-driven policies of both Joe Biden and Barack Obama have essentially disappeared. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry is booming and rapidly expanding. Offshore wind is going out of business. New nuclear installations on federal properties are being sped into production. Even a handful of new coal plants have been permitted for construction.

U.S. oil production from shale has continued rising despite a decade of grim predictions that all the prime drilling spots had been developed and production had peaked. America is already far and away the largest oil producing nation – adding 65 billion barrels to the national portfolio only cements that position into place for the foreseeable future.

Talk of getting to the impossible net zero by 2050 goal set by the Biden autopen presidency has all but disappeared from the political landscape. Few Democrats bring it up in their stump speeches. Some avoid even taking questions on the topic.

The Green New Deal rolled out in 2019 by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez seems a distant bad dream now, relegated to the dustbin of history as so many knew it would be. Look it up: According to the EIA, the U.S. produced 11.6 million barrels per day in February 2019 when AOC rolled out her genius $90 trillion plan. In May 2026, the number had risen by more than 2 million bpd.

Friday’s announced deal comes amid reports that Venezuela could be about to revoke its membership in the OPEC cartel. As I wrote here recently, OPEC has already lost most of its former influence over global crude prices. The loss of Venezuela, coming on the heels of the UAE ending its longtime membership, would present an existential threat to the cartel’s ongoing existence.

This all comes as both Chevron and Halliburton prepare to announce big Venezuela-related deals of their own as soon as next week amid the rapidly improving security and legal situation in the South American country. The arrangement announced Friday, now involving 55% U.S. ownership in these giant oil fields in joint operation with a yet-to-be-named private company should help speed further improvement in the situation on the ground there, which was in shambles in January, when Nicolas Maduro was deposed from power.

During a White House meeting that month, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods told President Trump that Venezuela was then “un-investable.” Woods’s comment was used by Trump opponents as fodder to slam the President, but he was right: Given the security situation and business environment that existed then, Venezuela was “un-investable” for a risk averse major like ExxonMobil. Much has changed since then, though, and Exxon has even been engaged in talks to make an entry there in recent months.

This new U.S. ownership stake, paired with private operators on the ground and a government in Caracas that understands its continued standing depends on performance, is a far different proposition than the wreckage Maduro left behind. A completed ownership structure might well provide the political, legal, and security cover the majors require.

The devil is always in the details of any big business deal, and they will tell the tale on this one. One thing we can say for sure, though, is that this is a deal that no prior modern president would have conceived of making. It is one of a kind, much like Mr. Trump himself.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.