U.S. brokers sale of stranded Venezuelan oil after capture of Maduro

The United States government is brokering the sale of millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil that have been trapped in the country since a partial blockade imposed by the Trump administration, people familiar with the deal said. The sales effort, organized by the Department of Energy, follows the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by U.S.

Special Forces on Jan. 3, the people said. Officials said the DOE is organizing the sale of about 50 million barrels stranded since the blockade; a spokesman said the first sale has already occurred. U.S. officials approached commodity traders Trafigura and Vitol to execute the sales, and the firms have paid for a significant share of allocated oil and by Wednesday had shipped more than four million barrels to storage in the Caribbean — including Curaçao, Saint Lucia and the Bahamas — with the oil expected ultimately to reach U.S.

refineries, the people said. People familiar with the transactions said traders paid roughly $50 a barrel, above the roughly $30 price the oil had fetched in prior exports to China. The blockade had largely wiped out Venezuelan government revenues and left storage near capacity; officials said selling the crude is crucial to preventing a collapse of the oil industry and giving the country’s interim government a chance to meet American demands to open Venezuela’s reserves to U.S.

investment. Mr. Maduro is facing trial in New York on drug trafficking charges, the report said. Several uncertainties remain.

Key Topics

World, Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, Trafigura, Vitol, Orinoco Belt