US Now Negotiating Ownership Stakes in a Dozen Venezuelan Oil Fields, Not Just Buying Crude

Since Energy Secretary Chris Wright told a Goldman Sachs conference in Miami on Wednesday that the US will market Venezuelan crude "indefinitely," the deal has grown a lot bigger.

Axios reported Thursday, citing two unnamed US officials, that Washington is now negotiating actual ownership stakes in more than a dozen Venezuelan oil fields. One official called it "massive." Another said calling it huge "would be an understatement."

This is not the same thing as the arrangement Trump announced Tuesday, where Venezuela ships 30 to 50 million barrels of stored crude to US docks and Trump personally directs how the roughly $1.5 to $2.5 billion in proceeds gets spent. That deal was about selling oil already sitting in tankers and storage. The new one, per Axios, is about the US taking equity in the fields themselves.

According to Hindustan Times, which cited the Axios report, the officials say the fields under discussion could produce as much as 90 million barrels a day combined and would "more than double" the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which fell to roughly 289.7 million barrels in August 2026, according to the same report, the lowest level since 1982. Barrels per day production and total reserve barrels are different units, and the Axios sourcing as relayed doesn't fully reconcile them. The exact number of fields and the size of any US stake remain undisclosed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading talks for the US side with Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, according to Hindustan Times. White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is also described as playing a major role. On the Venezuelan side, businessman Alejandro Bentancourt has been acting as the primary intermediary, a role first reported by Bloomberg on August 17.

What's already signed versus what's still just talk

While the equity-stake negotiations continue, actual contracts are already moving. NPR reported this week that Hunt Oil Company and SLB, the oilfield services giant formerly known as Schlumberger, each signed deals with Venezuela, the first such agreements between US firms and Caracas in nearly two decades.

Venezuelanalysis, reporting from Caracas, has the granular detail: Venezuelan Oil Minister Paula Henao finalized the Hunt Oil and SLB agreements on Tuesday on behalf of Rodríguez's government. Hunt Oil signed "Productive Participation Contracts" — concession-style deals — to operate the Caro and Carisito fields in eastern Venezuela, which produce light crude and natural gas. Hunt Oil CEO Hunter L. Hunt said the company "wants to play a constructive role in revitalizing and growing Venezuela's oil and gas production." SLB's deal covers reservoir studies and reactivating oil rigs. Reuters reported the company will work to bring 15 rigs back online in a country where only two onshore rigs are currently active.

Venezuelanalysis also flagged a less reassuring name in the mix: Crossover Energy, a Colorado-based firm founded in 2022 with, according to that outlet's reporting, no verifiable commercial registration, public website, or prior operating history before signing a memorandum of understanding with Rodríguez's government in May. Its CEO, Eric McCrady, previously ran Sundance Energy Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in 2021 carrying more than $250 million in debt before being liquidated in 2022. Whether Crossover actually finalizes a Venezuelan oilfield contract is still unresolved.

Separately, India's ONGC Videsh secured a US Treasury sanctions waiver to resume operations in Venezuela, where it holds stakes in two joint ventures, according to Venezuelanalysis.

The case for it, and the case against

The administration's argument is straightforward: US refineries on the Gulf Coast were built to process heavy, sulfur-rich crude exactly like Venezuela's, and they've been running short since sanctions cut off that supply years ago. Breitbart's reporting lays out the upside plainly. More heavy crude into Gulf refineries could mean cheaper diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline for American consumers, and Wright said the US will also send equipment and technical services to rebuild Venezuela's decayed oil infrastructure.

There's a fair concern on the other side, and it's not a fringe one: an American president personally directing the proceeds from another country's oil sales, while US officials simultaneously negotiate ownership stakes in that country's fields, raises real questions about what "temporary stewardship" means in practice and how long US control is supposed to last. Trump has said the money will be held in Treasury-controlled accounts at "globally recognized banks" specifically to shield it from Venezuela's creditors, which is also, functionally, shielding it from anyone else's oversight — Venezuelan or American.

None of this has gone through Congress. No treaty, no formal agreement on stake sizes, no public accounting mechanism has been disclosed. Axios's officials say the equity deal is close to signing but not finalized. The Treasury has not published terms for how oil proceeds already flowing in will be tracked or reported. Trump is scheduled to meet Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil executives at the White House Friday to discuss further investment, which will be the next concrete marker of how far this arrangement is going.