LONDON, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Vitol and Trafigura, two of the world’s largest commodity traders, are in talks with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump about the marketing of Venezuelan oil, four sources familiar with the matter said.
European trading houses have traditionally dominated the global oil trading and they could help the U.S. facilitate oil sales from Venezuela even though Washington wants U.S. majors to play the key role.
U.S. officials will meet trading representatives at the White House on Friday, one of the sources said, when the administration will also host U.S. oil majors.
Trafigura and Vitol declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment, which was sent outside of U.S. business hours.
The Trump administration quickly set its sights on Venezuela’s oil industry after U.S. forces captured President Nicolas Maduro on January 3.
Washington said it wants to control Venezuela’s oil sales and revenue indefinitely.
Trump has already said U.S. companies will invest in Venezuela and rebuild its oil industry to produce more oil and bring global energy costs down.
Washington and Caracas agreed a deal this week to export $2 billion worth of oil, some 30-50 million barrels, to the U.S.
U.S. oil companies want “serious guarantees” from Washington before they make large investments in Venezuela, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
Years of underinvestment and sanctions have seen the country’s output tumble to around 1 million barrels per day (bpd) or just 1% of global supply from 3.5 million bpd in the 1970s when it accounted for 7% of global oil.
Vitol and Trafigura were among the most active traders of Venezuelan oil in the past, though the reimposition of U.S. sanctions in 2019 forced them to halt, except for occasional shipments when U.S. temporary licences were in place.
(Reporting by Shariq Khan in New York, Dmitry Zhdannikov, Robert Harvey and Anna Hirtenstein in London, and Aizhu Chen in Singapore; editing by Jason Neely)
