Vice President JD Vance met Vitol trader John Addison at Montana’s Yellowstone Club on December 27, seven days before US forces seized Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, according to an investigation Reuters published November 11, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.
The source, who received Addison’s account of the meeting, says Vance asked how quickly Venezuelan crude could sell if the US took control of the supply, and that Addison told him Vitol was well placed to do the job. Addison says he never told anyone a meeting took place. Flight records place his private jet and the vice president’s plane at Bozeman’s airport that day, which does not by itself show a meeting.
Two days after Maduro’s capture, Energy Secretary Chris Wright called Addison to ask whether Vitol would market Venezuelan crude. Addison and the Energy Department both confirm the January 5 call. Addison, who gave $300,000 to a PAC that backed Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign, says Vance had vouched for him to Wright. A US official confirms that Vance called Addison trustworthy in a conversation at least a year earlier.
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The Energy Department says Wright and Vance never talked about selling Venezuelan oil and that it picked Vitol as the world’s biggest energy and commodity trader. Vitol says Addison lacked the expertise to negotiate a crude contract, so it brought in its crude team after the call.
Vitol and Trafigura won special licenses within days, and the administration skipped competitive bidding, arguing speed would stabilize Venezuela’s economy.
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On January 9, Addison joined a televised White House meeting with President Donald Trump and executives from ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and other oil companies. He left Vitol in March, and the Energy Department appointed him in July as co-chair of its advisory board.
Addison and his wife donated $7 million to political committees in 2024, including $5 million to Make America Great Again. That year, Vitol and SK Energy paid $50 million to settle California’s gasoline price-manipulation case, which named Addison as Vitol’s most senior executive in the alleged scheme. Neither admitted wrongdoing.
Venezuela’s 2026 exports have topped 200 million barrels. Tom Seng, a Texas Christian University finance professor, estimates traders make $3 to $3.50 a barrel, a margin of 3.5% to 4%. Vitol’s last three annual reports show operating margins of 1% to 3%. The investigation could not verify Seng’s estimate, and both firms call their contracts with state oil company PDVSA confidential.
A confidential KPMG report on the US-run Venezuela Custody Account shows that Vitol and Trafigura supplied 61% of the $12.26 billion deposited through September. Almost all of the money went back to Venezuela at its central bank’s request, and US officials approved each payout.
Rep. Robert Garcia, who leads House Oversight Democrats, said the meeting report “raises even more questions about who knew what and when.” Vitol and Trafigura both say they knew nothing of the US operation beforehand.
