President Donald Trump announced that Venezuela’s interim authorities will turn over 30–50 million barrels of “high quality, sanctioned oil” to the US, to be sold at market price with the proceeds controlled by him as president for uses he said would “benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.”
The plan, as described, is logistics-first: oil is to be moved by tankers and “storage ships,” then brought directly to US unloading docks, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright tasked to execute the plan immediately.
The core mechanics combine a physical oil transfer with centralized control of the resulting cash flow. The barrels move to the US, the sale is at market price, and the proceeds are explicitly placed under presidential control rather than described as routed through an external escrow, multilateral administrator, or separate trusteeship.
Energy analyst Rory Johnston characterized the barrels as likely representing accumulated inventory built up during the blockade, including crude on ships and in overflowing domestic storage, and argued that relieving the build should reduce pressure to shut in upstream production.
In that view, the transfer functions as a release valve. It addresses storage saturation risk by clearing barrels that otherwise constrain production continuity and export optionality.
Johnston also called the arrangement “booty,” a blunt shorthand for the political optics: a wartime-style spoils narrative attached to a commodity transfer. If the objective is humanitarian benefit, the language of unilateral control over profits is the part most likely to dominate reactions.
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One Response
Spoils of war….I hope indeed as Ms Levitt suggested, that these spoils would go back to the Venezuelan people.