Information announced by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright to the press in Texas on February 26.
According to Mr. Wright, after the US took over Venezuela's oil exports in early January - right after US forces arrested President Nicolas Maduro - all revenue from oil sales was transferred to a US-supervised fund located in Qatar.
Since then, international commodity trading groups such as Vitol and Trafigura have undertaken most of the marketing and crude oil trading activities of this OPEC member country under the agreement. Meanwhile, partners of Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA, especially Chevron, are increasing production and boosting exports.
Mr. Wright said that by the end of February, about 40 million barrels of oil are expected to be sold at an average price of about 50 USD/barrel, equivalent to estimated revenue of 2 billion USD. Previously, earlier this month, he predicted that Venezuela's oil sales could reach 5 billion USD in the next few months.
The initial sales target of the agreement set by US President Donald Trump was from 30 to 50 million barrels. According to the US Energy Secretary, most of this oil will be transferred to the US Gulf region, but will also be exported to India, Asian and European countries.
Any barrel of oil produced will be sold, the only question is where to sell it," Wright emphasized.
He also said that independent oil refineries in China - which previously imported Venezuelan oil and were sanctioned - can now buy crude oil from this country in the open market. President Donald Trump affirmed that the shipments will only be sold at fair market prices.
Millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil stored offshore in the country's waters are also in the process of being sold to the market.
The increase in exports is bringing Venezuela's crude oil and fuel back to markets that have not recorded this supply for months, even years, opening up a new wave of negotiations with customers in Asia and Europe.
