US makes first sale of Venezuelan crude after Maduro’s arrest

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[Financial News] The Donald Trump administration earlier this month signed the first contract to sell Venezuelan crude oil following the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
On the 14th (local time), The Hill, a US political news outlet, and other foreign media reported that the Trump administration had sold Venezuelan crude for 500 million dollars (about 733.7 billion won) and that additional sales are expected.
Christopher Allen Wright, US Secretary of Energy, stated that the US government will oversee the sale of the crude.
The proceeds from this crude sale have reportedly been deposited across several banks, including in Qatar.
Taylor Rogers, spokesperson for The White House, said, “The historic agreement President Donald Trump reached with Venezuela will benefit both the American and Venezuelan people.”
The New York Times (NYT) reported that the United States Department of Energy (DOE) has been working to sell 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude that had been locked up under sanctions, and that if this sale is successful, it plans to expand the scope beyond strategic reserves.
According to the paper, after Maduro’s arrest the US government contacted commodity trading firms Vitol and Trafigura, asking them to help facilitate the sale of the crude that had been frozen.
The two companies had already paid the Venezuelan government for crude purchases, and by the 14th they had reportedly shipped more than 4 million barrels first to The Bahamas and other countries around the Caribbean Sea.
jjyoon@fnnews.com Yoon Jae-joon Reporter