FILE - A local walks past a mural featuring oil pumps and wells in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
Days after the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that Washington should control the sale of oil from the country and the revenue from it. According to him, it is necessary to drive the changes the US wants to see in Venezuela.
Wright said he was speaking to American oil companies to learn what conditions would enable them to enter the South American country and added that he wanted to sell Venezuelan oil to US refineries.
Chris Wright, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of energy, testifies during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
US will let Venezuelan oil flow
“Instead of the oil being blockaded as it is right now, we’re going to let the oil flow,” Wright was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Wright made the comments while speaking at the Goldman Sachs Energy, CleanTech & Utilities Conference in Miami on Wednesday.
He also added that the US government would sell it to buyers domestically and around the world.
Story continues below this ad
The US would sell the production coming out of Venezuela indefinitely, he said. The sales would be controlled by the US government, Wright added, with revenues collected from them “deposited into accounts controlled by the US government.”
“If we control the flow of oil, the sales of that oil, and the flow of the cash that comes from those sales, we have large leverage. But without large leverage…you don’t get change.”
Fuel tanker trucks unload fuel at a gas station in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
US, Venezuela reach crude export deal
On Tuesday, Caracas and Washington reached a deal to export up to $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude to the United States, under which Venezuela will be “turning over” between 30 and 50 million barrels of “sanctioned oil” to the US.
“We could get several hundred thousand barrels a day of additional production in the short to medium term if the conditions are there for just small capital deployments,” Wright said.
Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, estimated at 303 billion barrels as of 2024–2026.
A macaw stands on a decorative oil drill in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
However, Venezuela was producing as much as 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in the 1970s. But reported mismanagement and limited foreign investment led to a huge drop in annual production, which averaged about 1.1 million bpd last year.
With Maduro removed from power, Trump said the US is set to “take control” of Venezuelan oil.
Share
FILE - A local walks past a mural featuring oil pumps and wells in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File) 
