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US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant has said Washington could lift some sanctions on Venezuela next week, as President Donald Trump tries to persuade US companies to invest billions of dollars to revive the country’s oil industry.
Besant’s comments come amid skepticism among oil executives about Trump meeting big capital commitments after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and took him to New York for trial.
“We are canceling the approval for the oil to be sold,” Besant told Reuters in an interview published on Saturday.
After saying the US would “run” Venezuela immediately after Maduro’s capture, Trump said on Friday that the interim government in Caracas “seems to be an ally, and I think will remain an ally” of Washington. He said the US would probably not launch further military operations in Venezuela because of Caracas’ satisfactory response to Maduro’s removal.
Bessant said the US is considering how it can recapture oil revenues in Venezuela “to run the government, run the security services, and get it back to the Venezuelan people.”
When asked by Reuters when the restrictions might be lifted, Besant said, “It could be as soon as next week”, without giving exact details. The Treasury did not immediately respond to questions about which restrictions Besant was referring to.
The US Energy Department said on Wednesday that the US is “selectively withdrawing sanctions to enable the transportation and sale of Venezuelan crude oil and products in global markets”.
Besant also said she would meet the heads of the IMF and World Bank next week about their organizations’ re-engagement with Caracas. He said about $5.3 billion of Venezuela’s frozen IMF special drawing rights international reserve assets could be used to help revive the Venezuelan economy.
The IMF and World Bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump gathered the most prominent US energy officials at the White House on Friday and tried to persuade them to spend “at least $100 billion” to increase production in Venezuela and lower US oil prices.
While some officials were optimistic about the potential for investment in Venezuela, ExxonMobil Chief Executive Darren Woods warned the president that the country remains “uninvestable” without “significant changes”. The FT has reported that the oil industry is unlikely to commit to making major investments in Venezuela without legal, financial and security guarantees from the Trump administration.
Trump told officials on Friday that “they will have those (security) guarantees,” without specifying what any guarantees would look like.
The United States began imposing targeted sanctions on Venezuela and Venezuelan entities in 2005, before the Trump administration significantly expanded them in 2019. That year, Trump signed executive orders imposing financial and territorial sanctions and sanctioning the Venezuelan government and the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
The US President signed an executive order on Friday night blocking courts and creditors from seizing oil revenues from Venezuela held in US Treasury accounts and declaring a “national emergency to protect” that revenue.
The White House said, “President Trump is blocking the seizure of Venezuelan oil revenues that could undermine vital U.S. efforts to ensure economic and political stability in Venezuela.”
Additional reporting by Claire Jones in London
