The Trump Admin. Has a Cozy Relation With Venezuela’s Interim Govt. It’s Reportedly Closing In On Its Oil Reserves.

The U.S. is in talks with Venezuela's interim government about taking an ownership stake in the country's oil resources, according to a new report.

Citing two people familiar with the matter, Axios detailed that the deal would more than double the U.S.'s oil reserves.

Discussions involve more than a dozen productive oil fields, many of which have not been exploited fully for many years as Venezuela's industry remains in a state of decay amid a decades-long crisis.

Venezuela's interim government, which has had a cozy relationship with the Trump administration since the operation where authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro was caught in January, would benefit from the pouring of resources to increase productivity.

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez was Maduro's vice president, but changed the government's tone completely after the operation. President Donald Trump privately began discussing ways to implement such a plan even before the January operation, the outlet added.

Such a deal would come at a time when the oil industry is under pressure as a result of the war in Iran and Russia-Ukraine. The U.S. has felt the pressure, with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) falling to its lowest level in more than 40 years.

Data from the Department of Energy released earlier this month showed that the SPR stood below 300 million barrels last week, the lowest since January 1983.

It was at about 415 million barrels before the war with Iran bean in late February and has a maximum authorized capacity of 714 million barrels.

The Trump administration had ordered the release of 172 million barrels in March as the war continued and the Strait of Hormuz remained closed.

Traffic through the waterway is not expected to fully reopen any time soon as Washington and Tehran's positions remain far apart.

As for Venezuela, a May report noted that the oil industry remains largely opaque, with little public clarity on how revenue from crude exports is being handled.

Trump had said Washington would oversee the country's oil sales, while Venezuelan authorities pledged public tracking of revenues and outside audits. But months into the arrangement, those mechanisms have yet to provide a clear picture of where the money is going, according to The New York Times.

Officials had said Venezuela would submit monthly budgets to the White House and that independent auditors would verify transactions. A senior State Department official told Congress that the U.S. government hired KPMG to review oil sales, while Venezuela's central bank also retained auditors, though few details about their work had been released, the same report noted.