An oil tanker is anchored at the wharf of state oil company PDVSA’s El Palito refinery.
Jesus Vargas | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday night that Venezuela’s interim authorities would hand over 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States.
Trump said in a social media post that the oil would be sold at market prices and that “the funds would be managed by me as President of the United States to ensure they are used for the benefit of the people of Venezuela and the United States.”
“I have asked Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to implement this plan immediately,” Trump wrote. “It will be transported by storage vessels and transported directly to unloading docks in the United States.”
President Trump said the oil being delivered to the United States is “high quality” and “sanctioned.”
The announcement came three days after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife in Caracas and took them to New York, where they were charged with federal drug trafficking conspiracy.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that President Trump is scheduled to meet with representatives of major U.S. oil companies. chevron, conocophilipsand exxon mobilalong with other domestic producers will “discuss significant investments in Venezuela’s oil sector” at the White House on Friday.
President Trump said U.S. oil companies would eventually invest billions of dollars to restore Venezuela’s aging oil production capacity.
Chevron is currently the only US oil company operating in Venezuela. ConocoPhillips and Exxon’s assets were nationalized in the mid-2000s by then-Venezuela President Hugo Chavez.
President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty Monday at their arraignment in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
During the proceedings, Maduro told Judge Alvin Hellerstein that he had been “kidnapped” and was a “prisoner of war.”
