Trump says US to get 50 million barrels of oil worth USD 5.2 billion from Venezuela

Washington DC [US], January 17 (ANI): US President Donald Trump on Friday (local time) said that Venezuela has offered Washington “50 million barrels of oil” worth USD 5.2 billion, and he has agreed to that deal.

Addressing the press on the renaming of Southern Boulevard to Donald J Trump Boulevard, Trump said, “We're dealing with the new President. We're dealing with a lot of the people who are running the country...They said, we have 50 million barrels of oil, and we have to get it processed immediately because we have no room. Will you take it? I said, we'll take it. It’s equivalent to USD 5.2 billion.”

Trump further commended the “great relationship” with the Venezuelan interim government, formed after the US captured former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a military operation. 

“We've had a great relationship with the people who are currently the Interim President and everybody else. A lot of pressure has been released,” he said.

After Maduro's capture, Trump had made it clear that Washington would "run" Venezuela during a transition and needs "total access... to the oil and to other things in their country."

Trump's comments also confirms recent report of New York-based news outlet Semafor that the US has made its first sale of Venezuelan oil valued at USD 500 million

According to the Semafor report, revenue from the oil sales is currently being held in bank accounts controlled by the US government, as indicated in Friday's order, according to the administration official. The main account, according to a second senior administration official, is located in Qatar.

As per a CNN report, Venezuela is sitting on a massive 303 billion barrels worth of crude -- about a fifth of the world's global reserves, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Trump previously said he plans to mobilise major U.S. oil companies to invest billions in fixing Venezuela's broken oil infrastructure.

"We are going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken oil infrastructure and start making money for the country," Trump said.

On Wednesday, Trump had a "long call" with Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said, "This partnership between the United States of America and Venezuela will be a spectacular one FOR ALL. Venezuela will soon be great and prosperous again, perhaps more so than ever before!" he added.

Rodriguez described the call as "long, productive and courteous" and said they discussed a bilateral agenda aimed at benefiting both countries. (ANI)