Venezuelan oil sales to the United States will start immediately with an initial shipment of approximately 30 million to 50 million barrels and will continue indefinitely, a senior Trump administration official told Reuters on Wednesday.
Trump on Tuesday unveiled a plan to refine and sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil that had been stuck in Venezuela under U.S. blockade.
The official said that U.S. sanctions on Venezuela will be selectively eased to help facilitate the supply and trade of Venezuelan crude and oil products to global markets.
Such oil exports which would be routed to the United States under the arrangement would have previously gone to China, according to CNBC, which first reported the news.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Wednesday the U.S. wants to get Venezuelan oil flowing again, deposit money into U.S.-controlled accounts and create conditions for U.S. oil companies to enter the country.
Over the weekend, Trump said the U.S. would “take control” of Venezuela after U.S. forces ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a step that could give U.S. energy companies access to the country’s vast oil reserves.
Venezuela was producing as much as 3.5 million bpd in the 1970s. But mismanagement and limited foreign investment led to a huge drop in annual production, which averaged about 1.1 million bpd last year.
(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina and Kanjyik Ghosh Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Alistair Bell)