Venezuela oil money won’t go to Qatar anymore, Energy Secretary says
Interim President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez and U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright spoke to the media after attending a meeting; This marks nearly three decades since Washington made its first on-site assessment of the oil industry it aims to help rebuild in Caracas, Venezuela, on Feb. 11, 2026, the most energy-policy-focused U.S. visit to the OPEC nation.
Leonardo Fernandez Viloria | Reuters
Energy Minister Chris Wright says Venezuelan oil revenue will no longer be deposited into an account in Qatar NBC News in an interview this week.
“An account was always set up in Qatar, controlled by the U.S. government, to deposit that money and then send the money from there to Venezuela,” Wright told NBC News on Thursday. he said.
“We now have an account with the US Treasury. The money will no longer go to Qatar,” the energy minister said.
The Trump administration took control of Venezuela’s oil sales after capturing former President Nicolás Maduro in a military raid last month. In Venezuela this week, Wright met with interim President Delcy Rodríguez, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country in decades.
Wright told NBC News that revenue from Venezuelan oil sales now exceeds $1 billion. He said the United States has short-term agreements to sell another $5 billion of the country’s crude oil in the next few months. The oil has so far gone to U.S. refineries and Europe, he said.
Wright said the United States deposited the first $500 million in oil sales into a Qatar account before transferring the funds back to Venezuela. Democrats in Congress have questioned the transparency and legality of the regulation.
The U.S. deposited the initial sales with Qatar because the funds were at risk of Venezuela’s creditors claiming them, Wright said. Caracas faces tens of billions of dollars in unpaid receivables due to sovereign debt default and nationalization of oil companies’ assets ExxonMobil And ConocoPhillips.
“Because Venezuela has so many creditors and they have so much debt, if we deposited it into a bank account that was quickly opened in the United States, we would run the risk of the creditors being able to freeze that money,” Wright said. “We want the creditors to eventually get their money back, but this money needs to reach Venezuela urgently.”
The United States faces the additional challenge of not officially recognizing the Rodríguez-led government. President Donald Trump recognized the opposition-led National Assembly from 2015 during his first term in 2019.
Washington must find a way to resolve the issue of government recognition of funds to be deposited in the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a speech to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 28.
“You have to recognize a government, but we don’t recognize this government,” Rubio said. “We recognize the 2015 National Assembly, so we must find a legally creative way to meet that standard.”
Scott Anderson, an international law expert who previously served at the State Department and the US Embassy in Baghdad under President Barack Obama, said Venezuelan oil revenue stored in the US should in theory be under the control of the opposition National Assembly due to Trump’s recognition.
This raises the question of which government the United States will ultimately recognize and when. Wright told NBC that elections and a change of power will likely occur in Venezuela during Trump’s term. He said the U.S. government’s oversight of Venezuela’s internal affairs would conclude at this point.
“Getting there is a matter of process,” Wright said. “Ultimately, what the long-term political leadership in Venezuela will be will be up to Venezuela.”
