“Very real possibility” American businesses take a financial stake in Venezuelan oil, energy secretary says

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said Sunday that it’s “quite likely” American companies will have an expanded presence in Venezuela’s oil industry as the country moves on following the removal of former President Nicolás Maduro.

“That’s going to be up to American businesses. That’s certainly a very real possibility,” Wright said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

But Wright said the U.S. has not taken over running Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA oil and gas company. President Trump on Friday met with oil executives at the White House, and his administration is pressing U.S. oil companies to reenter Venezuela. 

“No, today we are running the sale of their crudes. You know, we have a quarantine around their ability to ship oil outside of Venezuela. All of that goes through American crude marketers. And then that crude goes out into the market,” Wright said. “We collect those funds and bring them back to Venezuela to better the lives of Americans and Venezuelans.”

U.S. forces captured and removed Maduro and his wife on Jan. 3 and brought them to New York to face federal charges alleging narco-terrorism and cocaine importation, among other charges. Maduro and his wife have pleaded not guilty. Wright said the U.S. expects change to come fast to the South American country.

“With United States influence now by controlling the sale of their oil and therefore the flow of funds into the country, we think….we will see relatively rapid change, improvement on the ground in Venezuela,” said Wright. “This is a process. We’re only eight days into the process, but it’s off to a strong start.”

Wright said that means working with officials in the current government Maduro left behind, even though many of them have been indicted in the U.S. Those officials include Diosdado Cabello, the powerful Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, a strongman who has also previously been indicted in the U.S.

“We need to work with the people that have the guns today to ultimately move the country to a representative government and a better station. But what you’ve got to prevent in the meantime is a collapse of the nation,” Wright said. 

Still, Wright said, “we don’t have a legitimate government of Venezuela today.”

“We want to bring a representative government to the people of Venezuela. I think then you’ll see the full sovereignty back to the government of Venezuela,” Wright said.

President Trump on Sunday in a social media post warned another U.S. adversary in the region, Cuba, that it is cut off from Venezuelan oil, writing the island nation should “make a deal before it’s too late.” But Wright told Brennan off camera Sunday that the U.S. is not currently asking Mexico — a key fuel supplier to Cuba — to cut off oil to the isolated Caribbean island nation.