CALGARY — US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said that the US will be selling Venezuelan oil “indefinitely” after the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.The comments came after President Donald Trump announced late Tuesday that Wright would lead a US plan to sell up to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan crude turned over by interim authorities — a volume analysts estimate could generate as much as $2.5 billion.Speaking at a Goldman Sachs energy conference on Wednesday, Wright was open about the Trump administration’s plans going forward.When asked about the plan to get the 30–50 million barrels of sanctioned crude on the market, Wright said that he was working “directly in cooperation with the Venezuelans.”“This is crude that’s backed up in storage and in offshore floating storage. We are going to get that crude moving again and sell it, just like we do in our businesses,” Wright stated.“We are going to market the crude coming out of Venezuela — first this backed-up oil in storage, and then indefinitely, going forward, we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace. We will have the US as the supplier of diluent that has gone down there to enable the production.”.WIECHNIK: US-backed Venezuela oil rebuild threatens Canadian crude exports.According to Wright, sale proceeds will be deposited into accounts controlled by the US government before being distributed back to Venezuela to “benefit the Venezuelan people.”“Instead of the oil being blockaded, as it is right now, we’re going to let the oil flow — to United States refineries and around the world — to bring better oil supplies, but have those sales done by the US government,” Wright said.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said the oil would begin arriving “very soon,” though Politico reports that market analysts say it could take months for the full volume to reach US ports.“The oil is basically sitting in barrels, sitting on ships because of the effective quarantine of the United States of America,” Leavitt said at a briefing.She added that there are “no troops on the ground in Venezuela,” but said Trump “reserves the right to use the United States military if necessary.”Wright has stated that he has had conversations with major US oil companies about the conditions required for a return to Venezuela, saying that reviving the country’s oil sector will take massive investment and time.It has been reported that industry executives remain wary, citing concerns about security and political stability within Venezuela..Poilievre urges immediate pipeline approval as Carney downplays Venezuela oil risk.Wright told CNBC that executives from Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil have reacted positively to the Trump administration’s actions and have offered technical expertise, even if they are not prepared to commit major investments in the near future.“Are they going to put billions of dollars into building new infrastructure in Venezuela next week? Of course not,” Wright said.“You have to have a transformation of the conditions there. But they want to be productive advisers and partners in that process.”Wright said ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are unlikely to receive near-term compensation for assets seized by Venezuela in 2007, despite arbitration awards in their favour.He also said stabilizing Venezuela’s economy will take priority over settling long-standing debts.“In the short term right now, what we need to do with the revenue from those oil sales is stabilize the economy in Venezuela,” Wright said.“The huge debts that are owed to Conoco and Exxon are very real and need to be recompensed in the future, but that’s a longer-term issue.”Wright is expected to meet with oil executives at the White House on Friday alongside Trump and other senior US officials.
