Trump said he would visit Venezuela, Venezuela’s oil revenue exceeds $1 billion, and the United States will transfer the funds to the Treasury account.

Trump said he would visit Venezuela, Venezuela’s oil revenue exceeds $1 billion, and the United States will transfer the funds to the Treasury account.

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U.S. President Trump has announced he will visit Venezuela, marking the latest development in the accelerated U.S. efforts to seize Venezuelan oil resources after U.S. forces took control of the country’s former president Maduro last month. Meanwhile, the U.S. is restructuring the flow of funds from Venezuelan oil sales and has significantly relaxed business restrictions for global energy giants operating in the country.

According to CCTV reports, Trump confirmed his planned visit to Venezuela during a media interview at the White House, though he did not disclose the specific date or itinerary. He claimed that the U.S. and Venezuela are working closely together, that major U.S. oil companies are extracting oil in Venezuela, and that Venezuela “will receive a significant share of the profits.”

This Thursday, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated in a media interview that Venezuelan oil sales revenue has now surpassed $1 billion. He also revealed that the U.S. has set up accounts in the Treasury Department so that funds will no longer flow through Qatar.

Previously, the Trump administration had deposited the initial $500 million of oil sales revenue into a Qatar account under U.S. control. Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Adam Schiff introduced legislation on Thursday, requesting that the Office of Government Accountability audit the Qatar account independently.

Wright explained that choosing Qatar was meant to avoid the risk that Venezuelan creditors might freeze funds in U.S. bank accounts. Notably, America’s stance toward recognition of the Venezuelan government and complicated sanction waivers still restrict the full recovery of Venezuelan oil exports.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday issued two general licenses, greatly easing sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector. However, Venezuela’s national oil company may only sell oil to companies with individual licenses, limiting the pace of export expansion.

Fund flows redirected to U.S. soil

Wright said that the U.S. Government had previously set up accounts in Qatar for the receipt of Venezuelan oil sales revenue, which would then be transferred back to Venezuela.

The core reason for depositing funds in Qatar lies in creditor risk. Venezuela faces tens of billions of dollars in unpaid debts due to sovereign default and nationalization of assets from companies such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. Wright stated:

Venezuela has many creditors and owes huge amounts. If we rapidly set up U.S. bank accounts and deposit funds, creditors could freeze this money. We hope creditors eventually recover the funds, but the money urgently needs to be sent to Venezuela.

According to CCTV News, on the 11th local time, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright arrived in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, where he is to meet with interim President Rodriguez and others. According to U.S. sources, Wright is the highest-level U.S. official to visit since the U.S. started military actions against Venezuela.

Wright has said that this trip will include meetings with interim President Rodriguez as well as executives in the oil and gas sector, and that he will evaluate the state of Venezuela’s oil and gas production.

He revealed that the U.S. has signed short-term agreements and plans to sell an additional $5 billion of Venezuelan crude in the coming months. This oil has already been shipped to U.S. refineries and Europe.

An additional complexity for the U.S. is that it has never officially recognized the government led by Rodriguez. During his first term in 2019, Trump recognized the 2015 opposition-controlled National Assembly.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 28 that the U.S. must find a solution to the recognition issue before it can deposit funds in the U.S. Rubio said:

You have to recognize a government, but we do not recognize this government; we recognize the 2015 National Assembly, so we need to find some creative legal way to satisfy this criterion.

According to reports citing Scott Anderson, an international law expert and former U.S. State Department official, under Trump’s recognition, Venezuelan oil revenues deposited in the U.S. should theoretically be controlled by the opposition-led National Assembly.

This raises questions about which government the U.S. will ultimately recognize and when.

Wright told NBC that Venezuela may hold elections and implement a transfer of power during Trump’s term, at which point U.S. supervision over Venezuelan internal affairs will end. Wright said:

This is a procedural issue; Venezuela’s long-term political leadership should ultimately be decided by Venezuela itself.

Sanction relaxation still faces implementation hurdles

On Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control officially issued two new general licenses for the five largest U.S. oil giants, allowing Chevron, BP, Eni, Shell, and Repsol to resume oil and gas operations in Venezuela.

These companies still maintain offices in the country. The license requires royalties and Venezuelan taxes to be paid via U.S.-controlled foreign government deposit funds.

Another license allows global companies to sign contracts with Venezuela’s national oil company (PDVSA) for new oil and gas investments, but requires a separate authorization from the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The license does not allow transactions with Russian or Iranian companies or joint ventures controlled by personnel from those countries.

Even though the U.S. last month issued a general license broadly permitting oil exports and granted individual export licenses worth billions of dollars to traders Trafigura and Vitol, Venezuelan oil buyers say the general license has failed to fully facilitate trade.

However, according to Reuters citing four company sources seeking to purchase cargoes, in the past two weeks Venezuela’s national oil company has refused to sell oil to firms without individual U.S. licenses, limiting the pace of export expansion.

Sources say the broad nature of the general licenses leaves many terms open to interpretation, raising questions about what is permitted and what is banned.

Executives at the Venezuelan national oil company are asking the U.S. for specific guidance about which companies are allowed to trade and for clearer transaction terms to track cargoes and ensure revenues.

Reports say U.S. banks are also unwilling to finance Venezuelan oil trade deals, citing the complexity of the licenses. According to one source:

Some banks may not want to risk handling these transactions, or may believe that such activities are not authorized… Banks may be conducting more due diligence.

According to FAQs issued by the U.S. Treasury Department last week, oil sales must follow commercially reasonable terms or those “consistent with current market and industry standards.” The statement adds:

Financial institutions may rely on customers’ representations that transactions comply with License 46, unless they know or have reason to know otherwise.

The current general licenses for oil sales and trade do not allow the negotiation of debt repayments in oil cargoes as previous authorizations did. This is a challenge for many PDVSA partners whose primary goal is to recover millions of dollars owed.

According to an updated export schedule from the Venezuelan national oil company this week, despite multiple meetings with U.S. and other refiners to discuss direct procurement, Vitol, Trafigura, and Chevron still account for the bulk of Venezuelan oil exports.

Shipping data shows Venezuela’s oil exports in January rose to about 800,000 barrels per day from 498,000 in December, but this is still below last year’s average and not enough to achieve large-scale inventory reduction.

Over the past two months, U.S. Gulf Coast refineries have struggled to absorb the rapid surge in Venezuelan crude shipments, and traders may resell Venezuelan oil to Europe and Asia.

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