Energy secretary Chris Wright denies US seeks to ‘take’ country’s oil, saying deal is transformation of relations
The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, has denied Washington is seeking to commandeer huge quantities of Venezuelan oil, amid growing criticism of Donald Trump’s energy deal with the country’s interim leaders.
“Absolutely not,” Wright replied when asked by a CNBC journalist if the US was engaged in a “heavy-handed” attempt to “take” Venezuelan oil in violation of the South American country’s constitution.
Wright landed in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, on Tuesday night, four days after Trump announced what he called “the biggest oil deal in world history”.
“I think we are seeing an absolutely historic transformation of both Venezuela and the relations between Venezuela and the US,” Wright said of the deal, which Trump has claimed will give the US control of 65bn barrels of Venezuelan oil. “This is President Trump’s grand plan to replace conflict with commerce,” Wright said.
