The US Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, declared on Tuesday that sales of Venezuelan oil managed by Washington could exceed $10 billion annually. These resources, he said, would be used to rebuild the country after the departure of ousted President Nicolás Maduro.
"So far, we have sold about $1 billion in oil. So we are talking about well over $10 billion a year," Wright said on Fox News, as reported by Euronews and the Argentine News Agency.
Wright, who met last week in Caracas with Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, maintained that this "huge volume of income" will be used to "begin to rebuild a country and a society, restore a free press and a representative government".
The agreement between the Rodríguez government and Washington to market Venezuelan hydrocarbons also includes the shipment of "a specific type of oil for which US refineries were built in the 1970s," and according to Wright, "it will help asphalt production in the US by lowering the cost of road construction".
"It's a win-win for all and the transformation of a country without a single US soldier on the ground and without a single dollar from the US taxpayer. It's a completely unconventional diplomacy from President Donald Trump, that marks a before and after," Wright insisted.
According to the article, after the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3 by US forces, Trump demanded "full access to Venezuelan oil resources", while Wright assured that Washington would control the sale of Venezuelan oil for an indefinite period. In this way, Washington would maintain a lever of pressure on Caracas by controlling the oil industry, the country's main source of income, according to the report.
"Recently, we have signed agreements to sell another $5 billion in the coming months."
