BOGOTA/WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Only a "serious, democratic government" can provide the stability needed by investors in Venezuela's oil sector, opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado said in a video message on Thursday.

President Trump framed last week's deal for the U.S. government to take a stake in Venezuelan oil as a boon for the depleted Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But the plan faces some hurdles, experts say.

The Trump administration’s deal with a private oil company to increase oil production in the South American country could take many years to come to fruition.

The Trump administration is touting its oil deals in Venezuela as it seeks to prove the usefulness of the military operation to oust former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez signed an agreement granting U.S. companies majority control over 65 billion barrels of crude oil.

The Defense Department’s Office of Strategic Capital, founded by the Biden administration to give loans to bolster the U.S. defense industry, is helping lead President Trump’s oil deal.

The deal gives the Pentagon a 35% ownership stake in the private company being created, and the State Department will get a guarantee to purchase 20% of the output at cost.

Venezuela is becoming a major testing ground for Donald Trump’s hemispheric ambitions, emerging as another potential source of rivalry with China.