The administration of US President Donald Trump confirmed Venezuela's first oil sale on January 14, saying it had collected 500 million USD.
This is only the first of many Venezuelan oil sales, expected to bring in billions of USD in the coming months and possibly many years.
According to a former US official, the money was sent to Qatar, instead of being kept in US banks or sent directly to Venezuela.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Newsmax that cash from oil sales will begin flowing into Venezuela as early as January 15. This money will be used to finance the activities of the Venezuelan government, security and food.
Two sources familiar with Venezuela's financial system informed that Venezuelan banks have begun to promote cash, showing that money raised from oil has reached this country.
Venezuela has been sanctioned by Western governments, basically isolated from the global banking system for decades. For decades, Venezuela has seized oil assets, causing foreign energy companies to demand compensation.
President Donald Trump once emphasized that revenue from oil sales must directly benefit Venezuela, while preventing claimants of Venezuela's oil revenue from accessing the money that the US is generating from oil sales transactions.
On January 9, President Trump issued an executive order, which stated that all attempts to impose custody, deduction or other legal rulings to demand the above amounts of money would be blocked.
The US sending money from Venezuela's oil sales to an account in Qatar is a way for this money to be out of reach of Western businesses and creditors, who demand to receive this money.
An anonymous expert on international relations and Venezuela said that for a long time, Qatar has played a mediating role between the US and the Venezuelan government, opening up more direct communication channels between the two governments before the US arrested Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Other experts say that Qatari banks played a similar mediating role during the administration of President Joe Biden when allowing some money from oil sales to flow back to Iran in the process of easing sanctions against this country.
Qatari banks holding the US money selling Venezuelan oil have been directed to auction that money to Venezuelan banks, prioritizing food, medicine and small businesses, according to Alejandro Grisanti - founding director of Ecoanalitica, a Latin and South American region consulting company operating in Venezuela and other countries. That money will be collected and allocated by the Central Bank of Venezuela according to US requirements.
