Sources: Trump administration in negotiations for long-term rights to Venezuelan oil fields, sources say; plan involves huge costs and high legal risks

According to three people familiar with the relevant discussions, the Trump administration is negotiating to obtain long-term equity stakes in vast Venezuelan oil fields. This proposal involves huge expenditures and has an uncertain legal outlook, aiming to encourage cautious energy companies to begin extraction in this high-risk region. The basic idea of the plan is to give the US stronger direct control over Venezuela's oil reserves, but the proposal is still being refined, and may be modified or even completely fall through. Two negotiators, who are not authorized to disclose details publicly and chose to remain anonymous, said that under the terms currently being discussed, the US would secure long-term contract rights to one-third of Venezuela's oil reserves, with access to about 90 billion barrels of crude oil. A list names 17 oil fields in which the US plans to participate. Some of these fields have no supporting infrastructure or transportation hubs for processing and shipping crude oil; even among the few that have remaining facilities, equipment has been damaged due to years of neglect and theft. To extract oil from these fields would require an investment of tens of billions of dollars, along with the need to establish expensive security measures.