US to take indefinite control of Venezuela’s oil sector: Rubio

The United States will assume indefinite control over Venezuela’s oil production and sales to prevent further instability in the sector, US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio said.

Briefing the US Senate, Rubio said Washington would oversee extraction, marketing and overall management of Venezuela’s oil industry as part of a restructuring process. During the initial phase, only the US government and US-authorised entities will be allowed to operate in the sector, he said.

Rubio added that a second phase would follow, opening Venezuela’s oil industry to US and other Western companies under what he described as fair competition.

Earlier, on January 7, President Donald Trump said the US would transport Venezuelan oil by sea to the United States before supplying it to international markets.

Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven crude reserves—about 303 billion barrels, nearly one-fifth of the global total—according to the US Energy Information Administration. Despite this, daily output remains low at around one million barrels, or roughly 0.8 percent of global supply, largely due to underinvestment and the complexity of refining its heavy crude.

The announcement follows a US military operation in Caracas last month in which President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were detained. They are currently held in New York and face charges including drug trafficking and weapons offences, US officials said.