Wright: US will sell Venezuelan oil ‘indefinitely’

 The U.S. will “indefinitely” sell Venezuelan oil, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday — indicating that U.S. control will go beyond the barrels President Trump announced Tuesday.

“We’re going to market the crude coming out of Venezuela: First this backed up stored oil, and then indefinitely, going forward, we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace,” he said at a Goldman Sachs energy conference in Miami.

Trump announced late Tuesday that Venezuela would turn over between 30 million and 50 million barrels that would be sold and controlled by the president “to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.”

On Tuesday, Wright detailed what could be significant U.S. involvement even before U.S. companies themselves expand into Venezuela.

“We will have [the] U.S. as the supplier of diluent. It’s got to get down there to enable that production,” he said, referring to materials that can be used to dilute heavy crude oil like the oil that comes from Venezuela.

“We’re going to have that flowing again and as we make progress with the government, we’ll enable the importing of parts and equipment and services to kind of prevent the industry from collapsing, stabilize the production, and then as quickly as possible, start to see it growing again and of course, in the long run, create the conditions that the major American companies that were there before — or maybe that weren’t there before, but want to be there — will go in.”

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world, a resource that Trump has frequently touted since his capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Trump himself has insisted that U.S. oil companies want to be involved in Venezuela, though companies themselves have been more hesitant to say so. The state of the country’s infrastructure and its political instability also create risks for energy companies seeking to invest. 

Chevron already operates in Venezuela. U.S. firms ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips left in 2007.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5676484-venezuela-oil-us-control-energy-chris-wright/