WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) – The United States has taken the oil that was on seized Venezuelan tankers and will process it in U.S. refineries, President Donald Trump said in a New York Post interview that was published on Saturday.
“Let’s put it this way — they don’t have any oil. We take the oil,” Trump told the newspaper.
The oil is being refined in “various places” including Houston, he said.
The U.S. military has seized seven Venezuela-linked tankers since the start of Trump’s month-long campaign to control Venezuela’s oil flows.
Trump said on Tuesday that his administration had taken 50 million barrels of oil out of Venezuela, and was selling some of it in the open market.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Sergio NonEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
