WASHINGTON – Venezuelan oil seized by the United States is already being processed at American refineries, according to President Donald Trump.
In a Jan. 23 interview with the New York Post, the president said the oil was “coming into the refineries in Houston, in various places.”
“Let’s put it this way,” he said. “They don’t have any oil. We take the oil.”
Trump said he “wasn’t allowed” to disclose the location of seven tankers the American military has taken from the beleaguered Latin American country. Since capturing and deposing Venezuela’s leader on Jan. 3 and declaring the U.S. would take over the nation’s vast oil reserves, the president has encouraged the heads of major oil companies to invest in rebuilding its energy sector and increase output following years of crippling sanctions.
Read more: Why is the US so interested in Venezuelan oil? See these charts.
The administration secured its first sale of Venezuela’s oil in a deal worth $500 million, an administration official said this week. Three sources with knowledge previously told USA TODAY that some of those funds would be stored in an account in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar.
More such deals, involving millions of oil barrels, are on the way, the president has said.
“We are running the oil in Venezuela,” Trump told the Post. “Venezuela is going to get some, and we’re going to get some. Then we have the big oil companies going in, and they’ll be taking so much oil that Venezuela will make more money than they’ve ever made before.”
Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Francesca Chambers
Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says Venezuelan oil is already coming into US refineries