US to Receive 30 to 50 Million Barrels of Sanctioned Oil From Venezuela: Trump

The United States will soon receive 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil from the South American nation in the near future, U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Jan. 6.

“I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!”

He said that he had asked U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright “to execute this plan, immediately.”

With oil trading at roughly $56 per barrel, the transfer could be worth as much as $2.8 billion.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States uses approximately 20 million barrels of oil per day—meaning that the oil from Venezuela could be the equivalent of as many as 2 1/2 days of gasoline supply.

The influx of Venezuelan oil came just three days after U.S. forces on Jan. 3 carried out a daring raid in and around Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, which resulted in the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

Following his capture, Maduro was transported to Brooklyn in New York City to face narco-terrorism and other charges and made his first appearance in court on Jan. 5. Maduro pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has since been sworn in as the interim leader of the South American nation and has presumptively agreed to the transport of oil to the United States.

After Maduro’s extraction, Trump warned Rodríguez that she could face worse consequences than Maduro if she doesn’t “do what’s right” and seek to align the nation more with U.S. interests.

Trump has encouraged Venezuela’s oil industry to accept assistance from U.S. companies and investors to build up the nation’s oil industry.

Venezuela possesses, by far, the largest proven oil reserves in the world by quantity, outpacing even the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.

However, Venezuelan oil is also among the most difficult in the world to refine, as most of it is heavy and extra-heavy crude, which is difficult to pass through refining pipes and contains harmful additives that can corrode refinery equipment.