Trump Says Venezuelan Oil Will Be Used to Fill Up Strategic Petroleum Reserve

The United States is planning to use oil sourced as a result of a deal with Venezuela to fill the Strategic National Reserve, which has fallen to near-record lows in recent days, President Donald Trump announced on Sunday.

The process “will begin very shortly, and is a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States,” Trump wrote in a Sunday morning post on Truth Social.

Days before, Trump said on Aug. 29 that the United States and the South American country came to an agreement that will allow the U.S. government take control of around 65 billion barrels of the country’s oil reserves.

The Strategic National Reserve, which is the emergency U.S. stockpile of oil, is held in underground tanks in Louisiana and Texas. It holds the nation’s stockpile of emergency-use oil, although it has fallen to its lowest levels in decades.

The reserve has seen a decline in recent years, starting around the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, falling from a recent high of 656 million barrels on July 31, 2020, to around 289 million barrels in the week ending on Aug. 21, 2026, according to the Energy Information Administration.

In March, the Trump administration ordered the release of 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic National Reserve amid the U.S.–Iran war that erupted in late February. Global supply dropped when Tehran launched attacks on commercial tanker ships attempting to travel through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes during peacetime.

Trump on Aug. 29 wrote in a social media post announcing the agreement that it was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Venezuelan acting leader Delcy Rodríguez, who became the country’s leader after a U.S. military operation captured leader Nicolás Maduro and transported him to the United States, where he is facing charges for narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking.

Trump wrote in his post that the agreement was “the biggest oil deal in world history.”

Rodríguez’s government in a statement said the deal involves the development of 17 fields with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels. It said the agreement could draw $100 billion in investment into Venezuela’s oil industry and yield over $209 billion in revenue for Caracas.

Rodríguez, in a post on Telegram, predicted the deal “will have a significant impact on our nation’s revival.”

The Trump administration faces mounting pressure to address high gas prices as the war in Iran on Friday reached a six-month milestone. The average price of gas in the U.S. stood at about $4.07 a gallon on Sunday, according to the American Automotive Association (AAA). The average price was $3.19 at the same time last year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.