Vitol and Trafigura: Traders at the Heart of Trump’s Venezuela Oil Grab
An oil tanker, carrying a shipment of Venezuelan oil, docked at the Enterprise Marine Terminal in Freeport, Texas.
Photographer: Antranik Tavitian/BloombergPresident Donald Trump has portrayed his takeover of Venezuela’s oil sales as a victory for America, but when his administration wanted to sell several billion dollars’ worth of the fuel quickly, the experts it turned to were a couple of foreign trading houses.
Vitol Group and Trafigura Group’s special licenses to ship still-sanctioned Venezuelan barrels have given them a head start in a potentially lucrative trade, while Caracas is under pressure to get the oil flowing again after Trump’s blockade forced the industry to cut production levels as storage filled up.