Venezuelan crude oil will be offered at a discount to traders, compared to competing oil from other countries, such as Canada
The United States concluded its first sale of Venezuelan oil, worth 500 million dollars (around 460 million euros), according to a US administration official.
Additional oil sales are expected in the coming days and weeks, the same source added.
In the days following the United States attack on Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this month, President Donald Trump made it clear that he plans to exploit the country’s vast oil reserves.
Trump said on Friday that the oil industry would invest at least 100 billion dollars (about 92 billion euros) to rebuild Venezuela’s weakened energy sector — although it is not clear where that amount comes from.
The administration’s plans to capitalize on Venezuelan oil were met with skepticism by U.S. energy leaders during a White House meeting on Friday.
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods told officials, when discussing the obstacles to doing business in Venezuela. “There are a set of legal and commercial frameworks that would have to be established just to be able to understand what kind of return we could get on the investment.”
Several other executives also expressed reluctance to do business with the crisis-stricken Latin American country. After a long meeting at the White House on Friday, Trump and his top advisors left without any significant commitments from companies to invest billions of dollars in the country.
Details about the first oil sale are unclear, but in a statement, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said that “President Trump’s team is facilitating positive, ongoing discussions with oil companies that are ready and willing to make unprecedented investments to restore Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.”
On Wednesday, Venezuelan crude oil was being offered at a discount to traders, compared to competing oil from other countries, such as Canada.
