American President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday night (6) that Venezuela’s provisional regime will deliver up to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. This product will be sold and the money will be controlled by the American president, Trump said in a post on the Truth Social network.
“I am pleased to announce that Venezuela’s interim authorities will deliver between 30 and 50 million barrels of high-quality oil, which was under sanctions, to the United States of America. This oil will be sold at market price, and the money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure that it is used for the benefit of the people of Venezuela and the United States!”, wrote the American president.
“I have asked Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to execute this plan immediately. The oil will be transported by tankers and taken directly to unloading ports in the United States,” Trump added. The government of interim dictator Delcy Rodríguez has not yet commented on the matter.
Since before the operation in which the then dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, was captured by the US last weekend, Trump has reaffirmed that the nationalization of the Venezuelan oil industry in 1976 was a “robbery” against American companies and that his government wants the oil “back”.
Venezuela has the largest known oil reserves in the world, according to data from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), with around 303 billion barrels.
However, due to incompetence, corruption and lack of investment, the country produced only 893,470 barrels per day in 2024, only the 20th performance worldwide, according to the Statbase platform.
In 1998, before Hugo Chávez came to power, Venezuela’s production was 3.4 million per day.
On Monday (5), in an interview with NBC, Trump stated that the US government could subsidize oil company projects to rebuild the sector’s infrastructure in Venezuela, which could be completed in less than a year and a half, according to the American president.
