Global energy markets remain focused on oil supply, reserves and the geopolitical leverage tied to both. That debate sharpened on September 22, 2026, when President Donald Trump used a speech at the United Nations to describe a new U.S.-Venezuela oil relationship in sweeping terms. The available reserve data, however, shows the combined U.S. and Venezuelan share of world oil is far below the figure he cited.
Trump’s statement and the verified reserve numbers
Trump said during his September 22 address to the 81st session of the U.N. General Assembly that “when you add the United States and Venezuela together, we have more than 60 percent of the oil in the world,” according to the published transcript of his remarks. The comment came as he promoted what the White House has described as a historic oil agreement involving Venezuela and 65 billion barrels of proven reserves.
Publicly available reserve data does not support that percentage. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said U.S. crude oil and lease condensate proved reserves totaled about 46 billion barrels at the end of 2024. OPEC’s 2025 Annual Statistical Bulletin said Venezuela held 303.221 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves at the end of 2024, while total world proven crude oil reserves stood at 1,567 billion barrels.
Using those figures, the combined U.S. and Venezuelan total comes to roughly 349.2 billion barrels, or about 22.3% of world reserves. Even if 65 billion barrels referenced by the White House were added separately to the U.S. side, the total would still be about 26.4% of global reserves, not 60%, based on the same world total.
What is confirmed is that the Trump administration has publicly framed the Venezuela arrangement around majority U.S. control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves. A White House release said the deal involved 17 oil fields and identified North American Blue Energy Partners as the operator receiving long-term concessions from Venezuelan interim authorities. Reuters also reported on August 28 that Trump announced a push to take control of about a fifth of Venezuela’s reserves.
What remains less clear is how that political agreement translates into internationally recognized reserve ownership. Venezuela still holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves on major public datasets, and those country totals are not automatically reassigned because a foreign company or foreign-backed consortium obtains operating rights or a concession. The administration has not released public documentation showing that global reserve compilers have changed how they count Venezuelan reserves as a result of the agreement.
That distinction matters because reserves, production and commercial control are separate measures. Reuters reported that Venezuela produces far less than its reserve base would suggest, at roughly 1.25 million barrels per day, after years of underinvestment, sanctions and infrastructure decline. The United States, by contrast, remains the world’s largest crude producer, with EIA saying output averaged a record 13.6 million barrels per day in 2025.
The difference between 60% and 22% is not just a statistical dispute. It affects how the public understands U.S. leverage in global oil markets, the scale of the Venezuela agreement and the practical limits of any single administration’s energy strategy. OPEC’s data and EIA’s reserve reports indicate that the world’s oil base remains widely distributed, even with Venezuela ranked first in reserves and the United States holding a large domestic reserve base.
It also highlights the difference between reserves in the ground and oil that can be produced quickly. Reuters reported that Venezuela’s industry has been hampered by years of mismanagement and underinvestment, and outside analysts cited by FactCheck.org have said restoring output to earlier levels would take many years and major capital spending. Those constraints mean reserve figures alone do not determine near-term gasoline prices or immediate supply security.
For U.S. readers, the practical takeaway is that the administration’s Venezuela policy may still affect crude flows, refining supply and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over time, but the verified reserve math does not support the 60% figure Trump used at the U.N. As of the latest publicly available data, the combined U.S.-Venezuela share of world proven crude reserves is about 22%, based on OPEC’s world total and official U.S. reserve estimates.