Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Reports that the US is preparing to claim a big stake in Venezuela’s massive energy reserves have sparked an outcry, with critics describing the move as “predatory” and a “rapacious” land grab.
Several media outlets this week reported that the Trump administration – which abducted Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, in January and has steered the South American country ever since – hopes to secure long-term access to its oil and gasfields.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves with an estimated 303bn barrels, compared with Saudi Arabia’s 268bn and Iran’s 208bn.
On August 29, the Wall Street Journal said Trump officials were in “advanced talks” with Venezuelan officials to take “a direct stake in more than a dozen oilfields” containing 90bn barrels, nearly a third of Venezuela’s energy reserves.
Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the negotiations, said one deal under discussion was a 100-year lease on several oilfields.
The reports caused unease and anger among members of Venezuela’s opposition, who are already up in arms about Trump’s failure to bring about genuine political change after capturing Maduro.
Ricardo Hausmann, an exiled former minister and opposition supporter, wrote on X: “An illegitimate interim government with an illegitimate hydrocarbons law has no legitimacy to strike this unconstitutional deal. It will be a fiasco for all involved.”
The deal has also been called unconstitutional.
