US set to take control of major portion of Venezuelan oil wealth

By Jennifer A Dlouhy and Eric Martin

The US is set to take majority control over a huge amount of Venezuela’s oil wealth in an unprecedented maneuver that officials said would create the world’s second-largest private oil company by reserves.

The US will control 55% of the effective output from the joint venture, and will obtain the oil at cost, with the venture having 100-year concessions for oil fields totaling about 65 billion barrels of proven reserves.

The plan represents an untested maneuver that could be vulnerable to legal challenges and political shifts in Washington, with some criticizing the lack of a democratic transition or a timetable for elections as part of the deal.

President Donald Trump made the announcement about the arrangement in a Truth Social post on Friday night. It represents his latest move to establish US dominance over the Western Hemisphere, countering years of inroads by China, as part of his embrace of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine.

Working with Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, a partnership with private business secured majority US control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves in Venezuela, Trump said.

Read also: Trump’s Venezuela oil grab squeezes Nigeria out of America’s market

The plan represents an unparalleled modern-day intervention into the economy of a South American country Trump once called the 51st US state, harkening back to British control of Iran’s oil fields and the division of Iraqi assets among US and European nations a century ago.

It marks the culmination of a campaign in which the US captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, in January, seized Venezuelan oil tankers and struck…