OAN Staff Sophia Flores
6:19 PM – Tuesday, January 6, 2026
President Donald Trump announced that Venezuela will be “turning over” between 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the United States following the U.S.’s recent military operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.
“I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States! I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately. It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he concluded.
Venezuela is home to 17% of the world’s reserves, which is roughly 303 billion barrels of crude oil.
The United States uses approximately 13.4 million barrels of crude oils a day and 20 million barrels of oil per day.
Trump’s remarks followed closely on the heels of his recent comments regarding the Venezuela operation. Just a day prior, he had explicitly dismissed any parallels between the mission to capture Maduro and the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, characterizing the two military actions as fundamentally different in scale and intent.
“The difference between Iraq and this is that [former President George W. Bush] didn’t keep the oil. We’re going to keep the oil,” Trump said.
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