--- title: U.S. Makes First Venezuelan Oil Sale, Valued at $500 Million description: It marks the first such deal since U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. canonical: https://time.com/7346460/venezuela-oil-us-first-sale/ author: Chantelle Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-01-14T23:30:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T00:47:15.780Z article:section: World og:title: U.S. Makes First Venezuelan Oil Sale, Valued at $500 Million og:description: It marks the first such deal since U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. og:url: https://time.com/7346460/venezuela-oil-us-first-sale/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03c590b7c519c645/6998cce0e2d64b3196c5ffdd/Trump-Venezuela-Oil.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Trump Meets With Oil And Gas Executives At The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Makes First Venezuelan Oil Sale, Valued at $500 Million twitter:description: It marks the first such deal since U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03c590b7c519c645/6998cce0e2d64b3196c5ffdd/Trump-Venezuela-Oil.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Makes First Venezuelan Oil Sale After Maduro’s Ouster, Valued at $500 Million ## Video: Venezuela's María Machado Hands Trump Her Nobel Peace Prize [Watch (HLS stream): Venezuela's María Machado Hands Trump Her Nobel Peace Prize](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XbUA4awZ.m3u8) (0:28)  _Published 2026-01-16. It marks the first such deal since U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro._ by [Chantelle Lee](/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Jan 14, 2026 11:30 PM CUT  President Donald Trump takes questions from members of the media during a meeting with oil and gas executives in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 9, 2026. President Donald Trump takes questions from members of the media during a meeting with oil and gas executives in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 9, 2026.Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Chantelle Lee](/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Jan 14, 2026 11:30 PM CUT The Trump Administration secured its first sale of Venezuelan oil since its aggressive military operation in the South American country that led to the [capture](https://time.com/7342864/venezuela-caracas-strikes-trump/ "undefined") of the nation’s president, Nicolás Maduro. The sale, confirmed to TIME by a Trump Administration official, is valued at $500 million. The official added that more sales are expected to be finalized in the coming days and weeks. “President Trump brokered a historic energy deal with Venezuela, immediately following the arrest of narcoterrorist Nicolás Maduro, that will benefit the American and Venezuelan people,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to TIME. “President Trump’s team is facilitating positive, ongoing discussions with oil companies that are ready and willing to make unprecedented investments to restore Venezuela’s oil infrastructure,” she continued. “President Trump is protecting our Western Hemisphere from being taken advantage of by narcoterrorists, drug traffickers, and foreign adversaries.” Details of the sale were first reported by [Semafor](https://www.semafor.com/article/01/14/2026/us-gets-first-500-million-venezuelan-oil-deal-holding-some-proceeds-in-qatar "undefined"). The news outlet also reported that revenue from the deal is being kept in bank accounts controlled by the U.S. government, including one based in Qatar. **Read more:** [_What’s Happening With the U.S. and Venezuela, Explained_](https://time.com/7344628/us-venezuela-trump-maduro-oil-drugs-war-explainer-questions-answered/ "undefined") In the aftermath of Maduro’s capture, Trump said that the U.S. would [“run the country”](https://time.com/7342937/venezuela-trump-maduro-oil/?itm%5Fsource=parsely-api "undefined") until a “proper and judicious transition” of power took place. He indicated that the U.S. would [take control of the oil industry](https://time.com/7343783/oil-companies-response-trump-venezuela/ "undefined") in the South American nation. Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the U.S. plans to seize and sell [up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil](https://time.com/7344479/venezuela-oil-rubio-trump/ "undefined"), the funds from which would be disbursed, by the U.S. government, “in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people, not corruption, not the regime.” “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” the President said earlier this month. ### More from TIME ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7346460/venezuela-oil-us-first-sale/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7346460/venezuela-oil-us-first-sale/"},"headline":"U.S. Makes First Venezuelan Oil Sale After Maduro’s Ouster, Valued at $500 Million","datePublished":"2026-01-14T23:30:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T00:47:15.780Z","description":"It marks the first such deal since U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.","url":"https://time.com/7346460/venezuela-oil-us-first-sale/","keywords":["Venezuela","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03c590b7c519c645/6998cce0e2d64b3196c5ffdd/Trump-Venezuela-Oil.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chantelle Lee","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03c590b7c519c645/6998cce0e2d64b3196c5ffdd/Trump-Venezuela-Oil.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Meets With Oil And Gas Executives At The White House","caption":"President Trump Meets With Oil And Gas Executives At The White House","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/venezuela/","name":"Venezuela"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7346460/venezuela-oil-us-first-sale/","name":"U.S. Makes First Venezuelan Oil Sale After Maduro’s Ouster, Valued at $500 Million"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Venezuela's María Machado Hands Trump Her Nobel Peace Prize","description":"It marks the first such deal since U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XbUA4awZ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-01-16T18:14:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XbUA4awZ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/7346460/venezuela-oil-us-first-sale/","duration":"PT28S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/7346460/venezuela-oil-us-first-sale/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```