Revenue from Venezuela's oil sales will no longer be transferred to an account in Qatar as before, but will be directly transferred to an account at the US Treasury Department.
The information was revealed by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright in a recent interview with NBC News.
Previously, an account was established in Qatar, controlled by the US government, to receive money and then transfer it to Venezuela. Now we have an account at the US Treasury Department. Money will no longer pass through Qatar" - Minister Chris Wright said.
The administration of US President Donald Trump took over Venezuela's oil sales after arresting President Nicolas Maduro earlier this year.
This week, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright met with Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez. This is the highest-level visit of a US official to Venezuela in decades.
Mr. Wright said that revenue from Venezuelan oil has now exceeded 1 billion USD. The US has also signed short-term agreements to sell about 5 billion USD more Venezuelan crude oil in the next few months. This oil is currently mainly exported to oil refineries in the US and Europe.
According to the US Energy Secretary, the initial revenue of 500 million USD was transferred to accounts in Qatar before being transferred to Venezuela. Some Democratic senators have questioned the transparency and legality of this mechanism.
Senators Chuck Schumer and Adam Schiff have proposed a bill requiring the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct independent audits of accounts in Qatar.
Minister Wright explained that using Qatar accounts is to avoid the risk of Venezuelan creditors freezing money. Caracas is facing tens of billions of USD in compensation claims due to national defaults and the nationalization of assets of oil and gas companies such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips.
Venezuela has many creditors and large debts. If money is transferred quickly to US banks, that money is at risk of being frozen. We want the final creditors to be paid, but Venezuela needs this money in the short term," Minister Wright said.
The US has not yet officially recognized the government led by Ms. Rodriguez. On January 28, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Washington must find a legal solution to deal with the issue of government recognition when sending money to the US.
International law expert Scott Anderson said that in theory, the money from selling Venezuelan oil sent to the US will be under the control of the Venezuelan opposition Congress recognized by the US in 2015.
This raises the question of which government Washington will eventually recognize and when. Secretary Wright said that Venezuela is likely to hold elections and transfer power during President Trump's term. At that time, the US's supervisory role over Venezuelan internal affairs will end.
This is a process. In the long term, Venezuela's political leadership will be decided by the Venezuelan people themselves," Wright said.
