US refineries absorb half of Venezuela's oil output under new arrangement

Seven months after the United States removed President Nicolas Maduro from power and installed an interim government in Caracas, American refineries have become Venezuela's primary customer. More than half a million barrels of Venezuelan crude now flow daily into Gulf Coast processing plants—a dramatic reversal from the 135,000 barrels per day that arrived at the end of 2025. The figure comes from Kyle Haustveit, the Under Secretary of Energy, who disclosed it at an industry conference in Houston this week. Venezuela's total output has climbed to roughly 1.25 million barrels per day, meaning the United States is absorbing approximately 40 percent of the nation's oil production.

The arrangement works because of geography and geology. Venezuelan crude is heavy and acidic—the kind of oil that requires specialized refineries to process. The Gulf Coast plants that receive it were built precisely for this grade of petroleum. The United States has sweetened the deal by sending more than 100,000 barrels daily of naphtha, a lighter hydrocarbon that Venezuelan producers blend with their heavier crude to make it flow more easily through pipelines and refineries. Haustveit called it "a beautiful energy partnership," language that glosses over the fundamental reality: Washington now controls Venezuela's most valuable export and, by extension, the revenue it generates.

That control is substantial and opaque. According to the Financial Times, the United States collected more than $13 billion from Venezuelan oil sales in 2026 alone. President Trump disputed the figure upward but offered no alternative number. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress that oil revenues would be deposited into an account under American oversight, with Venezuela required to submit monthly budget requests and Washington pre-approving what the money could be spent on. Yet the administration has disclosed almost nothing about how much of that $13 billion has actually been disbursed or what it has funded. A State Department official mentioned in April that roughly $3 billion had been authorized for Venezuelan use, but the gap between collected revenue and disclosed spending remains a black box.

Venezuelan officials at the Houston event spoke optimistically about the future. Jovanny Martinez, a vice president at the state oil company PDVSA, said output would reach 1.245 million barrels per day by the end of August, with exports up nearly 20 percent for the year. He emphasized that fuel production has risen 12.9 percent domestically, supplying more power to Venezuelan households. The language was technocratic and forward-looking—talk of energy reform and development. But it masked a deeper question about sovereignty and accountability.

The Council on Foreign Relations raised that question directly in June. The think tank noted that while the Trump administration repeatedly frames its control of Venezuelan oil as mutually beneficial, it has not publicly disclosed how much crude it has sold, how much money it has collected, or where that money has gone. The opacity extends to Venezuelan gold and other mineral exports that Washington also controls. More troubling, the administration has excluded Venezuela's opposition—including Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado—from any discussions about the country's political future. The interim government is led by Decly Rodriguez, Maduro's former vice president. Without democratic safeguards or a clear path back to elections, the think tank warned, the United States risks simply replacing one authoritarian regime with another, this time one dependent on American oil revenues and American approval. Venezuela's opposition had proposed a roadmap calling for presidential elections and political negotiations, but those voices remain outside the room where decisions about the country's future are being made.