Trump’s Plan for 30 Million Barrels of Venezuelan Oil Doesn’t Add Up

Since deposing Nicolás Maduro and pledging to “run” his country, President Donald Trump has made it clear the U.S. will take a major role in Venezuela’s oil production. Many of the details remain murky, but much of what has been revealed so far doesn’t pass the smell test.

“I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States.” The oil, he added, “will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio later told reporters the oil shipment was part of the “stabilization of the country.”

As recently as November, Venezuela produced fewer than 1 million barrels of oil per day. (By comparison, last year the U.S. produced more than 13 million barrels per day.) On Wednesday, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright said the Venezuelan oil in question was “backed-up” and in storage.

“A senior administration official, speaking under condition of anonymity, told CNN that the oil has already been produced and put in barrels,” the outlet reported. “The majority of it is currently on boats and will now go to US facilities in the Gulf to be refined.”

But as Catherine Rampell of The Bulwark noted on X, “oil hasn’t been shipped in actual barrels in over a century.” Indeed, barrel is a unit of measurement—equal to 42 gallons—not an actual description of the means of transportation; oil is now transported on tanker ships that hold tens of millions of gallons.

It’s not clear what CNN’s anonymous “senior administration official” meant, but it’s certainly not true that 50 million individual barrels of oil are sitting in storage or on ships.

In fact, the whole plan is light on specifics. “Trump administration officials on Wednesday outlined a sweeping albeit bare-bones plan to effectively assume control of selling oil from Venezuela indefinitely,” Rebecca F. Elliott and Robert Jimison reported at The New York Times. “Venezuela’s state oil company released a statement Wednesday afternoon confirming that negotiations were underway with the U.S. government, but stopped short of saying there was a deal in place.”

“All proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan crude oil and oil products will first settle in U.S. controlled accounts at globally recognized banks to guarantee the legitimacy and integrity of the ultimate distribution of proceeds,” according to a DOE fact sheet. “These funds will be disbursed for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people at the discretion of the U.S. government.”

“We’re going to sell that crude, we’re going to put it in accounts, and we’re going to distribute [those] funds to the interim authorities in Venezuela and align that with incentives to improve their behavior,” Wright told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“The Trump administration plans to put money raised from seizure of Venezuelan oil into bank accounts outside the U.S. Treasury,” PBS’ Lisa Desjardins posted on X. “Sources said they understood these as similar or decidedly ‘off-shore’ accounts.” (Desjardins later added, citing “a helpful Republican Senator,” that by keeping the revenue in external bank accounts and not the Treasury, “the US is showing it does not own the proceeds from the oil it is seizing, but still wants to control it.”)

“It was unclear what legal authority the administration would rely on to commandeer the oil money to use as it sees fit, nor was it apparent what exactly had been agreed,” the Times‘ Elliott and Jimison added. “The Constitution gives Congress control over government expenditures, barring any money from being spent except as appropriated by legislation.”

Days ago, Trump sent troops into another country to oust its leader. Now, he’s claiming the authority to sell that country’s resources and distribute the proceeds however he pleases, and in the meantime, he may keep the funds offshore, away from the prying eyes of oversight.