President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the interim Venezuelan authorities would turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of “sanctioned” oil to the US.
“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,” Mr Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“It will be taken by storage ships and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States.”
He added that Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who is the founder of an oil and gas fracking services company, would carry out the plan.
After the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas at the weekend, Mr Trump said that US oil companies would take over the rebuilding of Venezuela's petroleum infrastructure after years of neglect.
Earlier, Mr Trump said that he would soon meet representatives of US oil companies to discuss plans.
Mr Trump did not provide details on the meetings when speaking to House Republicans at the Kennedy Centre, but told NBC News that oil companies would spend billions of dollars to rebuild Venezuela's energy infrastructure. He said the project could take 18 months.
US media has reported the Trump administration planned to meet executives at top American oil companies in a bid to convince them to return to the Opec member nation after Mr Maduro's removal from power.
Venezuela has about 303 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, the largest in the world, according to Opec data. However the country's production has declined from about 3.5 million barrels a day in 1999 to its current 1.1 million.
“Having a Venezuela that's an oil producer is good for the United States because it keeps the price of oil down,” Mr Trump told NBC News.
Meanwhile, the US and UK are tracking a Venezuelan oil tanker that is accused of breaking sanctions and carrying Iranian oil, according to reports. The ship, which changed its name from Bella 1 to Marinera and now bears a Russian flag, is somewhere in the North Atlantic Ocean, according to ship tracker MarineTraffic.
It was one of at least a dozen heading towards Venezuela amid the US military presence in the Caribbean. The US Treasury placed sanctions on Bella 1 in 2024, accusing it of carrying cargo subject to sanctions for a company owned by Hezbollah.
