The Trump administration is in talks with Venezuela’s interim government about taking an ownership stake in the South American country’s oil resources, Axios reported on Thursday, citing two U.S. officials.
A deal is still being worked out, but discussions are focused on more than a dozen productive oil fields owned by former Venezuelan insiders and interests previously controlled by China, according to Axios.
In return for giving the U.S. an ownership stake that would more than double its oil reserves, private companies, including American firms, would develop the fields and provide oil revenue to the Venezuelan government, the report says.
Reuters was not able to immediately verify the report.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Katharine Jackson)