Venezuela oil revenue will no longer be deposited in an account in Qatar, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told NBC News in an interview this week.
“An account was set up in Qatar, controlled by the U.S. government the whole time, to land that money in and then send the money from there down to Venezuela,” Wright told NBC News on Thursday.
“Now we have an account at the U.S. Treasury. The money won’t go to Qatar anymore,” the energy secretary said.
The Trump administration has taken control of Venezuela’s oil sales after capturing former President Nicolás Maduro in military raid last month. Wright met Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez in Venezuela this week, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country in decades.
Wright told NBC News that revenue from Venezuelan oil sales now top $1 billion. The U.S. has short-term agreements to sell another $5 billion of the country’s crude over the next few months, he said. The oil has gone to U.S. refineries and Europe so far, he said.
