President Donald Trump said Venezuelan oil, control of which is shifting to the American side under a large deal, will be used to replenish the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
In a statement on Truth Social, Trump blamed the Joe Biden administration for the critical depletion of national reserves. The president said the process of filling the storage sites to the brim will begin very soon and described it as “a gift from Venezuela to the people of the United States.”
At present, the US strategic reserve is only 40% full relative to design capacity and contains about 289.7 million barrels, although active stock sales were carried out under both administrations. The agreement announced a day earlier between US private business and Venezuela materially changes the balance. Thus, the American side receives a controlling stake over 65 billion barrels of crude oil.
Market participants estimate that the deal will create the second‑largest privately held oil company in the world by reserves. Integration of such volumes is intended to guarantee uninterrupted domestic US energy supplies for decades ahead.
