WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States has entered a sweeping agreement with Venezuela that, if fully realized, would give the U.S. majority control over a joint venture holding rights to more than 65 billion barrels of the South American country's proven oil reserves.

Trump announced the deal in a post on Truth Social, calling it "THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY." He said the agreement was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, and claimed it was secured at no cost to American taxpayers while more than doubling total U.S. oil reserves.

Under the terms described by a U.S. official who spoke to NBC's MS NOW, the arrangement gives the United States an effective 55% share of output from a newly formed private joint venture. That stake would be split between direct equity in the venture's holding company and rights to purchase Venezuelan crude oil at cost, rather than at market price. Rodriguez's government has granted the venture 100-year concessions covering oil fields containing the reserves in question, according to the same official.

If the venture proceeds as described, it would become the world's........

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