Critics Decry Proposed Century-Long US Lease on Venezuelan Oil Fields

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller are reportedly negotiating with Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodriguez. The proposal aims to secure US operational control over more than a dozen fields within the Orinoco Belt and Lake Maracaibo regions. These areas hold roughly 90 billion barrels of oil, a significant portion of Venezuela’s total 300 billion-barrel reserves.

Energy experts warn that the deal serves as a mechanism to lock the United States into decades of fossil fuel reliance. Tyler Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program, characterized the negotiations as a vehicle for transactional corruption, noting that the administration has already managed a $13 billion fund from Venezuelan oil sales since the January 2026 invasion with no public oversight. Francisco Rodríguez, a researcher at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, added that Venezuela’s National Assembly should reject the predatory agreement, while analysts at the Eurasia Group described the administration’s strategy as an overt attempt to exclude global competitors like China and Russia through geopolitical dominance.