Trump administration in talks for US stake in Venezuela oil: Report

NEW YORK: President Donald Trump's administration is in talks with Venezuela's interim government about the United States taking an ownership stake in the South American country's vast oil resources, the news site Axios reported on Thursday (Aug 27).

The discussions involve more than a dozen productive oil fields with 90 billion barrels of proven reserves - about a third of Venezuela's total proven reserves of 300 billion barrels, the report said, citing two unnamed US officials.

In return for a US ownership stake, private companies, including American firms, would develop the fields and return more oil revenue to Venezuela, according to Axios.

Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves. The deal would more than double US oil reserves at a time when the US strategic petroleum reserve is at a 40-year low, the report said.

The Trump administration did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

Nearly eight months after the US deposed former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a military raid, interim president Delcy Rodriguez has sought to open Venezuela to foreign investment, particularly in the energy sector.

She runs Venezuela under strong pressure from Trump, who wants to take charge of the country's oil industry.

The Trump administration has been urging US companies to invest in Venezuela, but they remain wary due to dilapidated infrastructure and past appropriation of assets of foreign investors by the government in Caracas.

Chevron, the only US oil company that was still operating in Venezuela when Maduro was ousted, said in July that it had raised its daily crude production to 280,000 barrels and plans to increase output by 50 per cent by the end of 2028.