US President Donald Trump has said Venezuela \u201cwill be turning over\u201d up to 50m barrels of oil to the US, after a surprise military operation that removed President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro from power.<\/p>\n
The oil will be sold at its market price, Trump posted on social media, adding that the money would be controlled by himself and used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the US.<\/p>\n
His comments come after he said the US oil industry would be \u201cup and running\u201d in Venezuela within 18 months and that he expected huge investments to pour into the country.<\/p>\n
Analysts previously told the BBC it could take tens of billions of dollars, and potentially a decade, to restore Venezuela\u2019s former output.<\/p>\n
Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday: \u201cI am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!\u201d<\/p>\n
His comment came a day after Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, formerly Venezuela\u2019s vice-president, was sworn in as its interim president. Maduro has been brought to the US to face drug-trafficking and weapons charges.<\/p>\n
On Monday the US president told NBC News: \u201cHaving a Venezuela that\u2019s an oil producer is good for the United States because it keeps the price of oil down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representatives from major US petroleum companies planned to meet the Trump administration this week, the BBC\u2019s US partner CBS reported.<\/p>\n
Analysts who previously spoke to the BBC were sceptical that Trump\u2019s plans would have a major impact on the global supply \u2013 and therefore price \u2013 of oil.<\/p>\n
They suggested that firms would look for reassurance that a stable government was in place, and even when they did invest, their projects would not deliver for years.<\/p>\n
Trump has argued in recent days that American oil companies can fix Venezuela\u2019s oil infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The country has an estimated 303bn barrels \u2013 the world\u2019s largest proven reserve \u2013 but its oil production has been in decline since the early 2000s.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration sees significant potential for its own energy prospects in Venezuela\u2019s reserves.<\/p>\n
Increasing the country\u2019s production of oil would be expensive for US firms.<\/p>\n
Venezuelan oil is also heavy and more difficult to refine. There is only one US firm, Chevron, currently operating in the country.<\/p>\n
Asked for comment about Trump\u2019s plans for US oil production in Venezuela, Chevron spokesman Bill Turenne said the company \u201cremains focused on the safety and wellbeing of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations,\u201d Turenne added.<\/p>\n
ConocoPhillips, a major US oil company that no longer has a presence in Venezuela, \u201cis monitoring developments in Venezuela and their potential implications for global energy supply and stability\u201d, said spokesman Dennis Nuss.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be premature to speculate on any future business activities or investments,\u201d Nuss said.<\/p>\n
A third company, Exxon, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
While justifying the seizure of Maduro from Caracas, Trump also claimed that Venezuela \u201cunilaterally seized and stole American oil\u201d.<\/p>\n
Vice-President JD Vance echoed those claims on X after Maduro was taken, writing that \u201cVenezuela expropriated American oil property and until recently used that stolen property to get rich and fund their narcoterrorist activities\u201d.<\/p>\n
The reality is more complex.<\/p>\n
US oil companies have a long history in Venezuela, extracting oil under licence agreements.<\/p>\n
Venezuela nationalised its oil industry in 1976 and in 2007, President Hugo Chavez exerted more state control over the remaining foreign-owned assets of US oil firms operating in the country.<\/p>\n
In 2019, a World Bank tribunal ordered Venezuela to pay $8.7 billion to ConocoPhillips in compensation for this 2007 move.<\/p>\n
That sum has not been paid by Venezuela, so at least one US oil company has outstanding compensation which is owed to it.<\/p>\n
But BBC Verify\u2019s Ben Chu said the claim Venezuela has \u201cstolen\u201d American oil is too simplistic, as experts said the oil itself was never actually owned by anyone except Venezuela.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump has said Venezuela \u201cwill be turning over\u201d up to 50m barrels of oil to the US, after a surprise military operation that removed President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro from power. The oil will be sold at its market price, Trump posted on social media, adding that the money would be controlled by himself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}