Trump Says Venezuela to Transfer 30–50 Million Barrels of Oil to US After Regime Change

 

    United States President Donald Trump has announced that Venezuela’s interim leadership will release between 30 million and 50 million barrels of sanctioned, high-grade crude oil to the United States following a US-supported military operation that ended the rule of President Nicolás Maduro last weekend.

Trump made the disclosure on Tuesday via his

 Truth Social account, stating that the oil shipment

 would be sold at prevailing market rates.

 According to him, the proceeds from the sale

 would be managed under his authority as

 president to ensure the funds serve the interests

 of both Venezuelan citizens and Americans.

He further revealed that Energy Secretary Chris

 Wright has been instructed to begin executing

 the plan without delay. Trump explained that the

 crude oil would be transported using storage

 vessels and delivered straight to designated

 offloading terminals within the United States.

   The announcement comes shortly after Delcy

 Rodríguez, Venezuela’s former vice president,

 was sworn in as interim president. Meanwhile,

 Maduro has reportedly been transferred to the

 United States, where he is expected to face

 charges related to drug trafficking and illegal

 weapons activities.

Trump has argued that restoring Venezuela’s oil

 production would help stabilize global energy

 markets and reduce fuel costs for American

 consumers. Speaking earlier to NBC News, he

 said increased oil output from Venezuela would

 be beneficial to the US by keeping prices low.

The US president also claimed that American oil

 companies could revive Venezuela’s energy

 sector within 18 months, predicting that

 significant foreign investment would soon return

 to the country.

However, energy analysts have cautioned that

 rebuilding Venezuela’s oil industry may require

 tens of billions of dollars and could take as long

 as a decade, citing years of neglect, infrastructure

 deterioration, and underinvestment.

Despite holding an estimated 303 billion barrels

 of proven oil reserves, the largest in the world,

 Venezuela’s production capacity has sharply

 declined since the early 2000s. The country’s

 crude oil is also known to be heavy and

 expensive to process.

Currently, Chevron remains the only major US oil

 company operating in Venezuela. In response to

 Trump’s announcement, a Chevron spokesperson

 said the company remains focused on employee

 safety and asset protection, while continuing to

 operate in compliance with applicable laws.

Other American energy firms reacted cautiously.

 ConocoPhillips said it is closely watching

 developments in Venezuela and assessing their

 impact on global energy markets, while

 ExxonMobil declined to comment.

Trump has also defended the detention of Maduro

 by accusing Venezuela of unlawfully taking

 American oil assets, a claim echoed by Vice

 President JD Vance. Analysts, however, note that

 the issue dates back decades, pointing to

 Venezuela’s nationalization of its oil sector in

 1976 and expanded state control under former

 president Hugo Chávez in 2007.

In 2019, a World Bank arbitration panel ordered

 Venezuela to pay $8.7 billion in compensation to

 ConocoPhillips for expropriated assets—a ruling

 that remains unresolved.