US energy chief: US gets 30% more for Venezuelan oil compared to what Venezuela paid in the past few weeks

Chris Wright, the U.S. Energy secretary, said Thursday that?U.S. The price of?Venezuelan?crude oil is 30% higher than what Venezuela paid before U.S. Special Forces captured President Nicolas Maduro in early this month.

Wright stated at an event of the U.S. Energy Association that "we're getting a 30 percent higher realized price" when we sell a barrel of crude oil than the barrel they sold?three-weeks ago. Wright did not detail the prices of oil sales before and following Maduro's capture.

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first sales

A U.S. official said on Wednesday that the $2 billion oil deal between Washington and Caracas was part of a larger deal of Venezuelan oil. The official stated that the first sales were valued at $500m, with more expected to follow in the next few days and weeks.

The administration of President Donald Trump has announced that it will sell as much as 50 million barrels (or more) of Venezuela's stranded crude oil. It will continue to sell Venezuelan produced oil indefinitely.

Traders and analysts said that in December oil buyers from Asia demanded steep discounts on Venezuelan oil due to the flood of sanctions oil?from Russia and Iran and a heightened risk of loading into?the South American nation. The quality of the oil, and U.S. sanctioned, forced the state oil company PDVSA to cut?prices. The discount below Brent crude was about twice as high as it had been a year ago.

A trader who deals with independent Chinese refiners said that the Chinese buyers were not interested in Venezuela's Merey heavy oil at $14 below Brent because Russian and Iranian supplies are also being sold at steep discounts.

In December,

. (Reporting and Editing by Nick Zieminski, Timothy Gardner)

(source: Reuters)