Oil and politics: What Trump’s ‘historic’ deal means for Venezuela

Since the last century, Venezuelan politics has been closely linked to the management of the country’s oil industry.

The debate for policymakers has centred on whether to liberalise or nationalise the sector, with the latter being the preferred option for the past 27 years.

Over time, a kind of “resource nationalism” has been instilled in the national psyche by the current governing party to consolidate its power and advance the interests of a regime that has used oil revenues to expand its political influence across the region, particularly in the Caribbean.

This all came to an abrupt end on January 3, 2026, when United States special forces abducted President Nicolas Maduro in a lightning military operation in Caracas and whisked him back to the US to stand trial on guns-and-drugs charges.

Since then, Maduro’s deputy and now interim President Delcy Rodriguez has aimed for privatisation of the oil industry in favour of US government interests.

Milestones reached during the past eight months include reforming the General Hydrocarbons Law, liberalising energy power plants and granting permissions, with prior US authorisation, to US and foreign oil companies – excluding any from China, Russia, Iran or North Korea – to participate in tapping Venezuela’s vast oil wealth in oil fields across the country.

The most significant development happened last week, when the two countries announced they had reached a deal granting US companies access to 65 billion barrels of crude oil reserves over the next 100 years.

Described by President Trump as the “biggest oil deal in world history”, this agreement not only marks a turning point in the governing party’s resource nationalism policy but also represents the culmination of the US government’s efforts to reinforce its dominance strategy and seize control of Venezuela’s oil and gas resources.