WASHINGTON — The United States 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 and secure American petroleum supplies for decades to come.

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

“At my direction, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, working closely with Highly Respected Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, and, through a partnership with private business, have secured majority U.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer,” Trump said.

A U.S. official said that the United States will control 55% of the effective output from the joint venture, and will obtain the oil at cost.

The plan represents an unparalleled modern-day intervention into another country’s economy, harkening back to British government control of Iran’s oilfields and the division of Iraqi assets among U.S. and European nations a century ago.

It’s also an untested maneuver — one that could be vulnerable to legal challenges and political shifts in Washington. It’s not clear that Trump’s arrangement would be fully embraced by a future American president, or how it might endure any future political upheaval in Venezuela.

“The Trump administration’s reported push to secure a stake in Venezuela’s oil reserves is likely to be counterproductive to long-term investment in the industry, primarily because of the political risk it introduces,” Chris Kennedy, the economic statecraft lead for Bloomberg Economics, wrote in a note.

“Few companies are likely to be willing to make major greenfield investments given the risk that a post-Trump U.S. administration would abandon this effort, or that a new, democratically-elected Venezuelan government wouldn’t honor such a deal,” he said.

The venture would have 100-year concessions for oil fields totaling 63 billion barrels of proven reserves, according to the official. The new entity will be the second largest corporate holder of proven reserves after Saudi Aramco, the official added.

Bloomberg News reported earlier Friday that the U.S. was pursuing a major stake in Venezuelan oil reserves via a potential partnership between the Department of Defense and Alejandro Betancourt, a controversial energy investor who has become a key middleman between the two countries.

Production from the new venture will help supply at-cost oil, go toward filling the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve and help meet the needs of the American military, the U.S. official said.

Rodríguez confirmed the agreement in a statement on Telegram. She called the deal “historic,” while saying oil projects would generate $209 billion in taxes. She said the deal covers 17 strategic fields holding 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, but didn’t mention the stakes each country would hold.

“This is completely unprecedented,” said Alejandro Velasco, an associate professor at New York University. Venezuela “risks becoming a playground of U.S. capitalism,” Velasco said.

The announcement comes amid a worldwide race to secure oil supplies disrupted by the war in Iran, and as Trump confronts voter anxieties about gasoline prices and inflation before the November midterm elections.

While Venezuela’s crude output has risen this year, the country pumped just 1.16 million barrels a day in July, according to a Bloomberg survey. That’s less than half the amount it produced a decade ago, a reflection of an earlier exodus by many Western energy companies and years of under investment and corruption that left the country’s oil sector in tatters.

Trump’s gambit is in keeping with his so-called Donroe Doctrine to extend American influence throughout the Western Hemisphere. Since U.S. forces captured longtime leader Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3 and Rodríguez took power, Trump has sought to exert leverage over the nation and its vast mineral and oil resources.

He’s described Venezuela as the 51st state and boasted frequently that much of the country’s crude — and oil revenues — are flowing to the U.S.

The plan also dovetails with Trump’s second-term moves to directly intervene — and take federal government stakes — in commercial ventures aimed at strengthening U.S. supply chains for semiconductors, critical minerals and batteries.

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(With assistance from Joe Carroll and Valentine Hilaire.)

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