The Scoop
The Trump administration’s first sale of Venezuelan oil is valued at $500 million, an administration official told Semafor.
The sale marks an initial milestone in the administration’s stewardship of Venezuela after the US ouster of its former leader Nicolás Maduro 11 days ago. President Donald Trump has indicated that the US would effectively run Venezuela for an indeterminable amount of time and take control of up to 50 million barrels of its oil — marketing and selling it while distributing the proceeds back to Venezuela in an arrangement with little precedent.
Trump signed an executive order on Friday that provided some details on how the US plans to block courts or creditors from tapping any revenue from those oil sales. Venezuela owes international bondholders, oil companies and others as much as $170 billion — one reason why US firms have been reluctant to help rebuild the country’s infrastructure.
Trump told ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance last week that the US is “not going to look at what people lost in the past, because that was their fault.”
The administration official told Semafor that the interim leadership in Venezuela, led by former Maduro No. 2 Delcy Rodríguez, has “fully cooperated” since the US-Venezuelan energy deal was announced last week, adding that the US has “leverage” through sanctions and oil sales.
Revenue from the oil sales is currently being held in bank accounts controlled by the US government, as indicated in Friday’s order, according to the administration official. The main account, according to a second senior administration official, is located in Qatar.
The second official described Qatar as a neutral location where money can flow freely with US approval and without risk of seizure. Trump’s order noted that at least some of the revenue would be held in US Treasury accounts.
“President Trump brokered a historic energy deal with Venezuela, immediately following the arrest of narcoterrorist Nicolás Maduro, that will benefit the American and Venezuelan people,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Semafor in a statement.
Rogers added that the administration is continuing “positive, ongoing discussions” with oil companies about Venezuela. Despite skepticism from many oil companies about the viability of investing there, Trump’s advisers remain confident that more deals — and sales — will come to fruition.
Chevron, the lone major US oil company that had stayed operational in Venezuela, believes it can expand production by 50% within the next two years, the administration official said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the Economic Club of Minnesota last week that his department “will oversee the accounts” and “then, at the president’s direction [and] Secretary Rubio’s direction … be in charge of the disbursement that goes back into Venezuela.”
“Treasury’s role will be making sure the funds get to the proper place,” Bessent added. “We’re the bankers here; we don’t direct the funds.”
Asked to provide further clarity on the accounts, a Treasury spokesperson told Semafor: “The United States Treasury is fully committed to supporting President Trump’s efforts on behalf of the people of Venezuela.” The spokesperson declined to comment further.
Know More
The administration’s decision to house at least some of its oil revenue in Qatar is likely to draw harsh scrutiny from Democrats who were already alarmed by the prospect that offshore accounts would be used.
“There is no basis in law for a president to set up an offshore account that he controls so that he can sell assets seized by the American military,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the party’s top Banking Committee member, told Semafor last week. “That is precisely a move that a corrupt politician would be attracted to.”
Broadly speaking, however, “it would make a ton of sense” for the Trump administration to park the proceeds at private banks in the US, said Peter Harrell, an attorney who served as former President Joe Biden’s senior director of international economics. Harrell pointed to financial institutions in Japan and Korea that banked proceeds from Iranian oil sales over a decade ago.
“I am sure that there are a couple of folks in the Treasury Department who remember working to set up that Iran scheme,” Harrell said.
Treasury will be on the hook for processing the requisite licenses via its Office of Foreign Assets Control, Harrell said. He added that the private banks would likely need to be big; have international experience; and be able to monitor for the type of corruption that had bogged down Iran’s accounts.
“The Venezuelan authorities down there will say, ‘we need 100 million tons of wheat’” and “‘we’d like to buy this from John Smith Wheat Trading Enterprises.’ And it turns out, John Smith Wheat Trading Enterprises is giving some kickback to Delcy [Rodríguez],” Harrell said.
“That’s how the corruption happens in these kinds of things — and so you’re going to want a bank that’s willing to spend some time looking at these transactions,” he added.
Given the inevitable political pressures surrounding Venezuelan oil sales, housing those accounts could be a heavy lift, even for financial institutions looking for closer ties to the administration.
“This account is going to be a headache for whatever bank that takes it on,” Harrell said. “They’re going to be getting questions. They’re going to be getting letters from Congress — and if Democrats take control [of the House], there will probably be subpoenas.”
Shelby and Eleanor’s View
The $500 million sale is good news for an administration that very quickly found itself owning the aftermath of capturing Maduro. And Trump is notoriously persistent, often finding ways to get companies and lawmakers to do what he wants.
But there are still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the US deal with Venezuela, including whether legal questions would get more complex should revenues be housed at any US banks.
Trump’s advisers also still have to figure out how to make good on his plan to give oil revenue to Venezuelans who had fled the country, as well as when new elections might be held there. The latter may very well depend on how closely Rodríguez continues to work with the administration.
Notable
- US refining companies like Valero Energy — not oil producers — are among those first in line to profit from the Trump administration’s involvement in Venezuela, The New York Times reports.
- Industry consultant Enverus predicts the country will boost its oil output by 50% over the next decade, per Bloomberg.
The View From Democrats
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, told Semafor on Wednesday that lawmakers are “waiting for a briefing on the details” of the oil revenue, including on “how they keep it and who distributes it.”
Reed added that “I am innately suspicious” of using a Qatari account. “I would suspect that that Qatari bank probably also loans a lot of money to Japan.” The US has been pressuring Japan to spend more money on defense.