Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday that the United States aims to restart Venezuelan oil production, place sales and revenue under U.S.-controlled accounts, and set conditions for American oil companies to operate in the country. Wright said the approach would also benefit the Venezuelan people.
Oil sales will be “done by the U.S. government and deposited into accounts controlled by the U.S. government,” he said, according to Newsmax.
“Then from there, those funds can flow back into Venezuela to benefit the Venezuelan people, but we need to have that leverage and that control of those oil sales to drive the changes that simply must happen in Venezuela,” he noted further.
Wright said he was in talks with U.S. oil companies to determine what conditions would allow them to operate in Venezuela and said he wanted Venezuelan oil to be sold to U.S. refineries.
“We’re going to market the crude coming out of Venezuela, first this backed-up, stored oil, and then indefinitely, going forward, we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace,” Wright said.
He made the remarks at the Goldman Sachs Energy, CleanTech & Utilities Conference in Miami.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said the United States would “take control” of Venezuela after U.S. forces ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
U.S. oil executives visited the White House last week to discuss options for reviving Venezuela’s struggling oil sector.
Trump on Friday urged major energy companies to commit to rebuilding Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, hosting a White House meeting to press executives to invest billions of dollars in developing the country’s vast oil reserves.
Representatives from Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and more than a dozen other oil and gas companies attended the meeting in the East Room, which took place less than a week after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a raid in Caracas, CBS News reported.
The president has outlined a plan to sell millions of barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil, place the proceeds under U.S. control, and expand production capacity, an effort that would depend on large investments from American energy companies to rehabilitate Venezuela’s deteriorating oil infrastructure.
Trump has said he wants U.S. firms to invest about $100 billion in the initiative. During the public portion of Friday’s meeting, he urged executives to move quickly to tap what he described as the country’s “tremendous wealth” and said oil companies would receive security guarantees to operate in Venezuela.
Several executives acknowledged the potential opportunity but declined to make firm investment commitments, at least publicly, citing unresolved concerns about security.
That said, CNBC noted that Trump revealed that oil companies will spend at least $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s energy sector while the U.S. will provide security and protection so “they get their money back and make a very nice return.”
The U.S. will decide which oil companies enter Venezuela, the president said. The White House will “cut a deal with the companies” Friday or shortly thereafter, he said.
“One of the things the United States gets out of this will be even lower energy prices,” Trump said, per CNBC.
The White House initiated the meeting, according to an industry source, who said it was not requested by the oil companies.
Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, totaling about 303 billion barrels, or roughly 17% of global reserves. However, its oil industry is in severe decline. Production has fallen from a peak of around 3.5 million barrels per day in the 1990s to about 800,000 barrels per day currently.
Analysts estimate that restoring Venezuelan oil output to 3 million barrels per day would require more than $180 billion in investment through 2040, CNBC said.
