- The United States needs to control Venezuela’s oil sales, says Energy Secretary Wright.
- Controlling Venezuela’s oil meant controlling the country: US Vice President Vance.
- Democrats criticize the Trump administration’s strategy as similar to stealing oil.
The United States needs to control Venezuela’s oil sales and revenues indefinitely to stabilize that country’s economy, rebuild its oil sector and ensure it acts in U.S. interests, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.
The comments reflect the importance of crude oil to President Donald Trump’s strategy in Venezuela after US forces overthrew the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, in an attack on the capital, Caracas, on Saturday.
“We need to have that influence and that control of those oil sales to drive the changes that simply need to happen in Venezuela,” U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at the Goldman Sachs Energy, CleanTech & Utilities Conference in Miami.
He said the proceeds would be used to stabilize Venezuela’s economy and eventually to compensate oil majors Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips for losses when their assets were nationalized by former President Hugo Chavez nearly two decades ago.
US Vice President JD Vance said that controlling Venezuela’s oil meant controlling the country.
“We control the energy resources and we tell the regime, ‘You are allowed to sell the oil as long as it serves the national interest of the United States; you are not allowed to sell it if it cannot serve the national interest of the United States,'” he told Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
“And that’s how we put incredible pressure on that country without wasting a single American life, without endangering any American citizen,” he said.
Democratic lawmakers criticized this approach, which Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy equated with stealing Venezuela’s oil at gunpoint, while industry analysts warned of political instability as the country walks a fine line between denouncing Maduro’s capture and appeasing the United States.
The OPEC member nation sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves but accounts for only about 1% of global supply after decades of underinvestment eroded production.
Stored oil reaches the market first
Energy Secretary Wright said the United States would first market stored Venezuelan oil and then sell ongoing future production indefinitely, depositing the proceeds into accounts controlled by the U.S. government.
These sales have already begun and the United States has hired “the world’s leading commodity traders and key banks” to execute them and provide financial support, according to a statement from the US Department of Energy.
Wright added that he was talking to American oil companies to find out what conditions would allow them to enter Venezuela to help boost the country’s production in the long term.
“The resources are immense. This should be a rich, prosperous and peaceful energy power,” he said.
On Tuesday, Washington announced an agreement with Caracas to initially export up to $2 billion in Venezuelan crude to the United States, a sign that the government of Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodríguez is responding to Trump’s demand to open up to American oil companies or risk further military intervention.
Trump said Wednesday in a post on Truth Social that Venezuela agreed to use profits from the sale of its oil to buy products made in the United States.
“A correct election and something very good for the people of Venezuela and the United States,” he wrote.
Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, said it was advancing negotiations with the United States for the sale of oil. Wills Rangel, member of the PDVSA board, said Reuters The United States will need to buy cargoes at fair market prices.
Shares of US refiners Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66 and Valero Energy rose between 2.5% and 5%.
Meetings at the White House
Trump is scheduled to meet with the heads of major oil companies at the White House on Friday to discuss ways to increase Venezuela’s oil production.
According to a source familiar with the planning, representatives from Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, the three major American oil companies, would be present.
Chevron Vice President Mark Nelson will represent the company at the meeting, another source said.
The companies, all of which have experience in Venezuela, declined to comment.
Wright said in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday afternoon that he spoke with the CEOs of all three companies immediately after Maduro’s capture and hoped they would become involved in rehabilitating Venezuela’s oil sector.
“Are they going to invest billions of dollars in building new infrastructure in Venezuela next week? Of course not,” he said. “But they want to be productive advisors and helpers in that process.”
Wright also told CNBC that some of the profits from Venezuelan oil sales could eventually be used to compensate ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil for losses when they left the country, but only after Venezuela’s economy stabilizes.
Chevron is the only major American oil company still operating in Venezuela’s oil fields.
Venezuela produced up to 3.5 million barrels a day in the 1970s. But mismanagement and limited foreign investment have since led to a sharp drop in annual production, which averaged about 1.1 million bpd last year.
Wright said he believed Venezuelan production could be increased in a short period with an injection of equipment and technology, but that a broader recovery to previous production levels would take years.
