The United States has struck an agreement with Venezuela to take control of a fifth of the country's oil reserves, President Donald Trump said, following talks with acting president Delcy Rodríguez, according to the NZZ.

Venezuela holds the largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world, the NZZ reports. Trump has openly acknowledged that Washington's interest in Venezuela centers on its oil wealth, according to the paper.

Why it matters: the arrangement extends Washington's sphere of control over Venezuelan oil, redrawing energy-security lines in the Western Hemisphere. It lands as global oil markets are already strained by Western sanctions on Iran and tension around Gulf shipping routes, a backdrop against which fresh US leverage over Venezuelan barrels carries outsized weight for prices and for rivals competing for access to crude.

The honest caveats: neither government has published the deal's legal terms, leaving open how the reserves will be developed, under what corporate structure, and how the arrangement squares with existing US sanctions on Caracas. Washington's relationship with Venezuela has swung between confrontation and courtship this year, leaving the deal's durability an open question.

What to watch: whether Caracas publishes the contract terms, whether US sanctions on Venezuelan crude exports are eased to let the oil reach market, and how Tehran and Moscow respond to Washington's expanded foothold.