US To Get 50 Million Barrels Of Oil From Venezuela At Market Price: Trump
US To Get 50 Million Barrels Of Oil From Venezuela At Market Price: Trump
M.U.H
07/01/202638
President Donald Trump said Tuesday on his social media site that "Interim Authorities" in Venezuela would be selling 30 million to 50 million barrels of "High Quality" oil to the US at its market price.
"I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately," Trump posted on Truth Social. "It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States."
Trump said the money would be controlled by him as president but it would be used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.
Separately, the White House is organizing an Oval Office meeting Friday with oil company executives regarding Venezuela, with representatives of Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips expected to attend, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss the plans.
Venezuela sits on about a fifth of the world's oil reserves, but observers pointed out that a quick ramp-up of output would be hamstrung by several issues, including its creaking infrastructure, low prices and political uncertainty.
Meanwhile, Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez insisted Tuesday no foreign power was governing her country, after Donald Trump said Washington would "run" it during a transition after ousting her predecessor.
Rodriguez, who was vice president under toppled leader Nicolas Maduro, has given mixed signals about how much she is prepared to cooperate with Trump, at times sounding conciliatory, at others defiant.
Speaking three days after US special forces snatched Maduro and his wife in a stunning raid in Caracas prefaced by airstrikes, Rodriguez said: "The government of Venezuela is in charge in our country, and no-one else."
"There is no foreign agent governing Venezuela."
Trump insists Washington is now "in charge" of the Caribbean country but says he is prepared to work with Rodriguez -- provided she submits to his demand for access to Venezuela's vast oil reserves.
Rodriguez has offered an olive branch but also appeared anxious to keep on her side the hardliners who control the security forces and paramilitaries, which have patrolled the streets since Maduro's capture.
"We are a people that does not surrender, we are a people that does not give up," she declared, paying tribute to the "martyrs" of the US attacks.
In its first confirmation of losses, Venezuela's military on Tuesday published a list of 23 troops, including five generals, killed in the US strikes.
Top ally Cuba separately issued a list of 32 dead Cuban military personnel, included two colonels and a lieutenant colonel, many of whom were members of Maduro's security detail.
Venezuela has not yet confirmed the number of civilian casualties in the operation in which US forces grabbed Maduro and Flores and took them to the United States to face trial.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab spoke Tuesday of "dozens" of civilian and military dead, without giving a breakdown.
