Venezuela oil fetching 30% higher price, U.S. energy chief says, after first sale worth $500 million

The U.S. is securing about 30% higher prices for Venezuelan crude, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Thursday, as the country has started selling oil from the Latin American nation after capturing its former President Nicolas Maduro.

Washington has completed its first sale of Venezuelan oil valued at about $500 million, according to a U.S. Department of Energy spokesperson, with more expected in the coming days and weeks.

“We’re getting about a 30% higher realized price when we sell the same barrel of oil than they sold the same barrel of oil three weeks ago,” Wright said at a U.S. Energy Association event, without specifying prices.

U.S. special forces captured Maduro earlier this month during an operation that Washington said was aimed at restoring political stability.

President Donald Trump said last week that Venezuela would hand over between 30 million and 50 million barrels of oil currently under U.S. sanctions, which would be sold at prevailing market prices. In a social media post, he noted that the proceeds would be controlled by him to ensure the funds benefit both Venezuela and the U.S.

That would just be the first tranche of oil, as the Department of Energy has said the oil sales from Venezuela will continue “indefinitely.”

Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven crude reserves at about 303 billion barrels, but years of underinvestment have left its oil industry in severe decline, with output now around 800,000 barrels per day from a peak of 3.5 million bpd in the 1990s.

Trump also announced last Friday that oil companies would invest at least $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s energy sector, adding that the U.S. would provide security to ensure investors earn strong returns.

He met oil industry leaders from Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, Valero and Maratho at the White House to discuss investments in Venezuela. Exxon CEO Darren Woods told Trump that the Venezuelan market is “uninvestable” in its current state.

Venezuela seized Exxon’s and Conoco’s assets in 2007, and Caracas owes the companies billions of dollars in outstanding claims from arbitration cases.

The developments come as global oil markets face a supply overhang that has weighed on prices in the past year.

Brent futures inched 0.14% higher to $63.85 a barrel as of 8:33 p.m. ET, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.2% to $59.31. This follows a sharp fall on Thursday as traders appear to brush off tensions between U.S. and Iran.

“Venezuela’s oil problem is not technical, and it is not commercial, it’s fundamentally human and political,” said Baron Lamarre, former head of trading at Petronas and co-founder of Index.

“Until investors have confidence in long-term political continuity, capital will remain cautious, incremental, and conditional,” he said.