US close to making a deal for an ownership stake in Venezuelan oil fields: report

The Trump administration is in talks with Venezuela's interim government about taking an ownership stake of more than a dozen of the country's oil fields. 

Details of the agreement are still being hammered out, but if the deal is closed, the fields will add 90 billion barrels of proven oil reserves to the U.S. total inventory, Axios reported, citing unnamed sources. 

The fields were previously controlled by former political insiders, some of whom have been indicted, as well as China. 

Under the proposed agreement, the Venezuelan government would give up a stake in the ownership of the fields in exchange for the expertise and capability of American companies that can develop the fields and generate revenue for Venezuela. 

"President Trump is close to securing America's energy future for generations to come, not just in the U.S. but in the hemisphere," one of the officials told Axios.