Washington DC [US], January 7 (HBTV): US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that interim authorities in Venezuela would turn over between 30 and 50 million barrels of what he described as ‘high-quality, sanctioned oil’ to the United States, adding that the oil would be sold at market price with proceeds controlled by the US administration.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he had asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute the plan immediately and that the oil would be transported by storage ships directly to unloading docks in the United States. ‘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,’ he wrote.
The announcement came days after Washington carried out what it described as a ‘large-scale’ military operation in Venezuela, during which former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured and taken out of the country.
Speaking at a press conference hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump said US oil companies would invest heavily to repair Venezuela’s oil infrastructure and revive production. He said American companies would ‘spend billions of dollars’ to fix what he described as a severely damaged system and begin generating revenue for the South American country.
Addressing reporters in Florida, Trump said the United States was in the ‘oil selling’ business and would supply oil to countries interested in buying it. ‘We’re in the oil business. We’re going to sell it to them. We’ll be selling oil probably in much larger doses because they couldn’t produce very much due to how bad their infrastructure was,’ he said, adding that many more countries were expected to purchase Venezuelan oil through the US.
Trump said Venezuela’s oil sector had suffered due to years of underinvestment and poor infrastructure, which had significantly limited production. He reiterated that US-led investment would be aimed at restoring capacity over time.
Maduro and Flores were captured in Caracas and flown out of the country in what Trump described as a joint operation involving intelligence agencies and US law enforcement. Trump said the former Venezuelan leader and his wife had been indicted on charges related to alleged drug trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracies in the Southern District of New York and would face trial. (ANI)