Venezuela’s oil sales, under the control of the United States for five weeks now, are set to bring $5 billion over the next few months, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told NBC News in an interview.
“Sales today are over a billion dollars, and in fact, we have sort of short-term agreements over the next few months that will bring in another $5 billion,” Secretary Wright said in the interview during a historic visit to Venezuela to meet with the interim President Delcy Rodríguez.
The United States has already transferred $500 million in proceeds from sales of Venezuelan crude oil to Caracas, following the deal agreed by the two governments in January.
All the money from the oil sales, handled by top commodity traders Vitol and Trafigura, goes back to Venezuela from a U.S. Treasury-controlled account, Secretary Chris told NBC News.
There is a lot of work to be done and massive investments need to flow for Venezuela to restore its oil industry, “But it’s on the road to becoming investable,” Secretary Wright told NBC News.
At last month’s White House meeting of U.S. President Trump with oil executives, ExxonMobil’s CEO Darren Woods said that “If we look at the legal and commercial constructs—frameworks—in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable.”
During the visit to Venezuela, Secretary Chris said earlier this week that Venezuela’s crude oil production could surge as soon as this year.
“This year, we can drive a dramatic increase in Venezuelan oil production, in Venezuelan natural gas production and Venezuelan electricity production,” the U.S. official said.
Commenting on a recent change in Venezuela’s oil law, Wright said that it was “a meaningful step in the right direction”, as quoted by AP, but “probably not far and clear enough to encourage the kind of large capital flows.”