Many of the world's leading oil-producing nations rely on state-run national champions—Saudi Arabia's Aramco, Russia's Rosneft, the UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Brazil's Petrobras, and Mexico's Pemex among them. The United States, despite being the world's biggest oil producer, has no such entity, leaving crude production to private-sector giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron as well as the many wildcatters across the Permian Basin.

That is set to change under the Trump administration's deal for 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves, which will give the federal government a stake in a new joint venture. Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, has granted a private company a 100-year lease for prime oil fields, a U.S. official said, according to reports. The arrangement marks a sharp reversal from the sanctions-heavy approach Washington applied to Venezuela's oil sector during the Maduro era, when U.S. measures cut the country off from global markets and its crude exports collapsed.

The federal government will control 55% of the company's effective output through equity ownership and oil production, with a private Venezuelan operator holding the remaining share. The U.S. official said the company will be the world's second-largest corporate holder of proven reserves, behind only Saudi Aramco.

Rodriguez said the deal will attract more than $100 billion in investment and generate $209 billion for Venezuela's government.

Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves in the world, an estimated 303 billion barrels. The 65 billion barrels covered by President Donald Trump's deal exceed the total U.S. proven reserves of 46 billion barrels.

The administration's majority stake in an oil company follows its investments in chipmaker Intel, rare earths miner MP Materials, mineral explorer Trilogy Metals, and dozens of other firms, along with revenue-sharing agreements with AI chip leaders Nvidia and AMD covering sales to China.

The deal comes nearly nine months after Trump ordered the military to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and bring him to the U.S. to face federal narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges. A month after that operation, the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran that produced the worst energy supply shock in history, spiking prices and forcing countries to draw down crude stockpiles.

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to 289.7 million barrels, its lowest level since November 1982. Some industry experts have warned the SPR will soon reach operational minimums, eliminating any further cushion against the oil deficit from the Middle East. The U.S. official told reporters that as the U.S.-Venezuelan company ramps up production, its output will help restock the SPR.

Venezuela's oil sector, however, has been in disrepair for decades. Production currently stands at just 1.1 million barrels a day, down from a peak of 3.5 million barrels more than 20 years ago. Much of the country's heavy crude, concentrated in the Orinoco Belt, requires specialized upgrading infrastructure and experienced operators to process. Returning output to those levels would require billions of dollars in investment and years to come to fruition.

Global oil giants with the financial resources for such investments must also be convinced it is safe to do business in Venezuela again after earlier governments nationalized their assets. Some are preparing to make the leap. Chevron is close to a deal to expand its longstanding operations in Venezuela, sources told the Wall Street Journal. Oilfield-services giant Halliburton is also in talks to bring equipment to the country, and executives from several oil-and-gas companies will sign production deals next week, the report added. Italy's Eni, which has a presence in Venezuela, announced Saturday it is working with authorities there to help revitalize the energy sector.

Still, many details of the new Venezuela venture remain unknown, and energy experts were skeptical about how much investment it could attract. "For sure, and if Venezuela ever gets anything resembling a democratic government, the very first thing it will do is flush Trump's deal down the toilet," Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, posted on X.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.