PDVSA Reaches Highest Oil Production in Eight Years as US Seeks Ownership Stake in Venezuelan Oil Fields
The Trump administration is reportedly negotiating with Caracas for stakes in 17 oil fields holding a combined 90 billion barrels of proven reserves.
Caracas (theassemblymedia.com) — Acting President Delcy Rodríguez hails that production has topped 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), its highest level since 2019 while Washington is reportedly pushing for a massive ownership stake in Venezuela’s oil reserves, in addition to controlling the country’s oil revenue.
“Amid the earthquake emergency, our oil production did not come to a halt,” Rodríguez said Monday in a national address marking the two-month anniversary of the natural disaster.
According to OPEC’s latest report, output rose to 1.117 million bpd in July from 1.104 million in June, as measured by secondary sources. PDVSA reported 1.2 million bpd in July, up slightly from the previous month’s 1.187 million bpd.
Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves but production stagnated when the first Trump administration imposed financial sanctions on PDVSA in 2017, an oil embargo in 2019, and secondary sanctions and other measures. As a result, crude production fell from 2.1 million bpd in 2016 to about 350,000 bpd in 2020, triggering a severe economic crisis and migration wave.
Rodríguez likewise announced that PDVSA has signed 50 strategic agreements in the oil and gas sector “that will bring new investments to more than 76 hydrocarbon-producing areas across the country.”
However, the government has not published a detailed listing of the 50 deals — neither the domestic and international private companies involved nor their scope and timeline. Analysis suggests the number announced by Rodríguez refers to multiple types of administrative and preliminary agreements, including infrastructure service contracts, non-binding exploratory memorandums, and separate deals for different phases of the same project.
According to reports, the Venezuelan Oil Ministry has disclosed six oil and gas agreements and three memorandums of understanding signed between April and August. These include contracts with US firms Chevron, Hunt Oil, Overseas Oil Company and Crossover Energy Holding; UK firms Shell and BP; Italy’s Eni; Spain’s Repsol; UAE’s XRG; and Qatar’s UCC Holding. More recently, US oil services and technology company SLB signed a contract to update PDVSA’s oilfield databases.
The accelerated agreements followed the January 29 reform of the 2001 Hydrocarbons Law, which eased royalty rates and taxes and allowed international arbitration to resolve disputes. The overhaul of the law was followed by Washington’s temporary, limited relaxation of its sanctions against Venezuela’s oil industry.
Since February, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued several licenses for oil and gas operations, including General License 50C on August 27 (replacing 50A and 50B), which authorized BP, Chevron, ENI, France’s Maurel & Prom, Repsol and Shell to resume and conduct operations in Venezuela.
The OFAC licenses condition that payments to the Venezuelan government and PDVSA, including taxes and royalties, must be made exclusively into the US Foreign Government Deposit Funds, or any other account as instructed by the US Treasury Department, in compliance with Executive Order 14373 issued January 9.
On January 3, the Trump administration attacked Caracas and abducted President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who now face 2020 alleged narcoterrorism charges in a Brooklyn detention center ahead of a June 2027 court date.
Immediately after Maduro’s abduction, Trump stated he would “run” Venezuela and control its oil exports indefinitely. Currently, about half of Venezuela’s total crude is sent to US Gulf Coast refineries, according to US Under Secretary of Energy Kyle Haustveit.
To receive funds from oil sales, the Venezuelan government must submit a budget request to Washington detailing how the money will be spent. Caracas has received only one recorded $300 million disbursement made in March.
A Financial Times investigation estimated that the Trump administration had seized more than US$13 billion in Venezuela’s oil revenue by July, with no clear indication of where the money is going. Trump has boasted that the oil revenue “paid for the war many times” and that “to the victor belong the spoils.” Under the January 9 Executive Order, the US Treasury must submit reports to Congress on the Venezuelan oil funds every six months, but none have been filed so far.
These opaque dealings come as the Trump administration is now reportedly seeking an ownership stake in 17 oil fields holding 90 billion barrels of proven reserves, according to Axios, which cited two US officials. The deal’s details are still reportedly being discussed.
“Calling this deal huge would be an understatement. It is massive,” one of the US unnamed officials told Axios.
It is unclear what benefits the deal would bring the Caribbean country even if more US firms develop oil fields and boost production, given the unknown destination of the revenue. The Rodríguez government has not commented on the deal’s veracity or talks with US officials.
The control over Venezuela’s oil reserves and sales aligns with Trump’s efforts to reassert dominance over Latin America, as outlined in his National Security Strategy published in November 2025.
