{"id":680934,"date":"2026-01-07T23:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/680934\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T23:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:08:13","slug":"us-says-it-will-control-venezuelas-oil-sales-indefinitely-oil-and-gas-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/680934\/","title":{"rendered":"US says it will control Venezuela\u2019s oil sales \u2018indefinitely\u2019 | Oil and Gas News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States says it will control sales of Venezuelan oil \u201cindefinitely\u201d and decide how the proceeds of those sales are used, as President Donald Trump\u2019s administration consolidates control over the South American country after abducting<\/a> its president.<\/p>\n

The US Department of Energy said on Wednesday that it had \u201cbegun marketing\u201d Venezuelan oil on global markets and all proceeds from the sales \u201cwill first settle in US-controlled accounts at globally recognized banks\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

\u201cThese funds will be disbursed for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people at the discretion of the US government,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese oil sales begin immediately with the anticipated sale of approximately 30-50 million barrels. They will continue indefinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement comes just days after the Trump administration abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro<\/a> on Saturday in what legal experts say was a clear violation of international law.<\/p>\n

The US has said it plans to \u201crun\u201d the country and take control of its vast oil reserves, with Trump saying on social media on Tuesday that Caracas would hand between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil<\/a> over to Washington.<\/p>\n

The US actions against Venezuela come amid a months-long pressure campaign by the Trump administration against Maduro, who has been charged in New York with drug trafficking offences that he denies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That has included a partial US naval blockade against Venezuela<\/a> and the seizure of several vessels that the Trump administration says were transporting oil to and from the country in violation of US sanctions.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday, US special forces seized two Venezuela-linked vessels<\/a> \u2013 including a Russian-flagged ship in the North Atlantic \u2013 for allegedly breaching those sanctions.<\/p>\n

The seizures came as senior US officials briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the Trump administration\u2019s plans in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera\u2019s Alan Fisher said most Republicans have backed Trump\u2019s actions while Democrats have raised a slew of questions.<\/p>\n

That includes \u201chow long this operation in Venezuela will continue, what it will cost, [whether] any American servicemen actually be deployed on the ground in Venezuela, and what is the Venezuelan reaction,\u201d Fisher explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump administration [is] hoping to get everyone on side before the end of the day,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote on social media that Wednesday\u2019s briefing was \u201cworse\u201d than imagined.<\/p>\n

\u201cOil company executives seem to know more about Trump\u2019s secret plan to \u2018run\u2019 Venezuela than the American people. We need public Senate hearings NOW,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Three-phased plan<\/p>\n

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that the Trump administration is pursuing a three-phased plan that begins with the sales of Venezuelan oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it\u2019s dispersed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people, not corruption, not the regime,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n

The second phase would see US and other companies gain access to the Venezuelan market, and \u201cbegin to create the process of reconciliation nationally \u2026 so that opposition forces can be amnestied and released from prisons or brought back to the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then the third phase, of course, would be one of transition,\u201d Rubio added.<\/p>\n

Gregory Brew, a senior analyst on Iran and energy at Eurasia Group, said the US announcement about controlling Venezuelan oil sales hints at \u201ca return to the concessionary system\u201d in place before the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Brew explained in a social media post<\/a> that, under that system, \u201cproducer states own the oil but it is Western firms that manage production and marketing, ultimately retain the bulk of the profits\u201d.<\/p>\n

A group of United Nations experts also warned<\/a> that recent statements from Trump and other administration officials about plans to \u201crun\u201d Venezuela and exploit its oil reserves would violate international law.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the experts said the US position contravenes \u201cthe right of peoples to self-determination and their associated sovereignty over natural resources, cornerstones of international human rights law\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cVenezuela\u2019s vast natural resources, including the largest proven oil reserves in the world, must not be cynically exploited through thinly veiled pretexts to legitimise military aggression, foreign occupation, or regime-change strategies,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Political situation unstable<\/p>\n

Renata Segura, the Latin America and Caribbean programme director at the International Crisis Group, noted Venezuelan authorities have not commented on the US saying it plans to control sales of the country\u2019s oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so we have to assume that either [the Venezuelan authorities] have accepted these terms, or that they\u2019re just going to be forced to accept them,\u201d Segura told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as president<\/a> earlier this week following Maduro\u2019s abduction, stressing on Tuesday that \u201cthere is no foreign agent governing Venezuela\u201d despite US claims to \u201crun\u201d the country.<\/p>\n

Segura explained, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of debate within the [Venezuelan] regime itself about how to move forward\u201d amid the US pronouncements, stressing the political situation remains far from stable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important what the army might do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe military forces in Venezuela control enormous amounts of power \u2013 both economic but also on the streets \u2013 and there might be a moment in which they think they\u2019re not going to be on board with this particular arrangement that the United States is presenting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States says it will control sales of Venezuelan oil \u201cindefinitely\u201d and decide how the proceeds of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[12633,32,1700,3274,12,37887,28137,285,49,978,286,659,8518],"class_list":{"0":"post-680934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-business-and-economy","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-latin-america","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-nicolas-maduro","14":"tag-oil-and-gas","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-us-canada","19":"tag-usa","20":"tag-venezuela"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115856336630963593","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}