Venezuela’s Oil Revenues Will Be Controlled By Me — Trump

President Donald Trump has announced that Venezuela’s interim authorities will transfer between 30 million and 50 million barrels of “high-quality” sanctioned oil to the United States, following the dramatic capture of President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces over the weekend.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, Trump said the oil would be shipped directly to the U.S. unloading docks and at Venezuela’s market price.

He added that the proceeds would be overseen by him personally to ensure the funds are used “to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.”

The announcement comes days after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas and flew them to New York to face federal drug charges.

Trump further instructed Energy Secretary Chris Wright to implement the oil transfer “immediately,” as the United States prepares for high-level talks with major U.S. energy firms.

Executives from Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil are expected at the White House later this week to discuss potential multibillion-dollar investments aimed at reviving Venezuela’s collapsing oil sector.

Trump has also said the United States will temporarily oversee governance in Venezuela until a political transition is secured, warning he is prepared to authorize “a second and much larger attack” if stability is threatened.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Trump compared the Venezuela operation with the Iraq war, arguing that past U.S. interventions failed because leaders “didn’t keep the oil.”

“We’re going to keep the oil, we’re going to rebuild their broken-down oil facilities, and this time we’re going to keep the oil,” Trump said.

Venezuela holds more than 300 billion barrels of proven oil reserves but years of alleged mismanagement, corruption and infrastructure decay have slashed output from about 3.5 million barrels per day in the late 1990s to roughly 800,000 barrels today, according to energy analytics firm Kpler.

Trump said major U.S. energy companies will now be mobilised to “spend billions of dollars” repairing Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.

“We are going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, fix the badly broken oil infrastructure and start making money for the country,” he said.