U.S. now positioned over the world’s largest oil reserves after Venezuela operation

Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the U.S. claims influence over Venezuela’s massive oil endowment — roughly 300 billion barrels, bigger than Saudi or Iran, anchoring nearly 20 % of global crude reserves under de facto U.S. strategic control.

Trump’s message is clear: American energy companies are expected to rebuild and exploit these resources, despite decades of decay, sanctions, and underinvestment that have left output near historic lows.

From a markets lens, control of crude reserves shifts long-term strategic optionality back toward U.S. firms, but physical production won’t snap back overnight — the oil infrastructure is broken, heavy crude is costly to process, and legal/regulatory hurdles remain high.

Tier-1 takeaway: Venezuela’s oil is now political capital and long-term FX optionality, not a near-term barrel-per-day supply story; that’s a structural narrative with implications across energy, sovereign risk, and big-cap oil equities.

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