President Donald Trump has said Venezuelan oil is now under US control, a stance that could disrupt China’s long-running oil-for-loans arrangements with Caracas and add a new pressure point to US-China diplomacy. The move comes as Washington seized two sanctioned oil tankers and said it plans to control Venezuelan oil sales “indefinitely,” with proceeds placed into US-controlled accounts that the administration says will ultimately benefit the Venezuelan people.
Trump’s approach affects not only Venezuela’s future oil exports but also competing financial claims from foreign governments and companies tied to the country’s oil industry. Analysts and officials cited in the report describe a situation where energy policy, debt repayment, and geopolitical influence are becoming tightly linked.
US says it will manage oil sales
The US seized two sanctioned oil tankers in a step it described as part of a plan to assert control over Venezuelan oil shipments. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US will handle sales of Venezuela’s oil “indefinitely,” and that proceeds will be deposited into US-controlled accounts that will ultimately “flow back into Venezuela to benefit the Venezuelan people.”
The administration said it would begin these sales with 30 million to 50 million barrels taken from Venezuela’s crude storage facilities. When asked for additional details, a Trump administration official—speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to comment publicly—said the policy aimed to wind down “adversarial outside influence” in the Western Hemisphere.
China’s oil-linked claims and debt exposure
The report says China is owed at least $10 billion from Venezuela, with former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro having paid down debt by shipping oil to China. It also says two major Chinese state-owned enterprises—China National Petroleum Corp and Sinopec—are entitled to 4.4 billion barrels of oil reserves in Venezuela, citing a Morgan Stanley research note.
The story adds that US companies have claims for tens of billions of dollars tied to the period when Caracas nationalised the oil industry, and it says it is unclear how these IOUs would be honored and in what order. It also notes that an interim Venezuelan government complying with Washington’s demands could question the legality of loans-for-oil deals and potentially halt payments.
Trade diplomacy adds another layer
Some experts quoted in the report expect Trump to work with China to stabilize trade relations, and it says Trump is expected to visit Beijing in April as part of an effort to protect a fragile trade truce reached with Chinese President Xi Jinping late last year. Craig Singleton of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies is quoted saying the administration appears focused on avoiding “unnecessary escalation or new irritants” with Beijing while keeping leverage on Washington’s terms.
Singleton also said he doubted Trump would want to turn Venezuela into a “flashpoint” that complicates trade dynamics or Trump’s personal engagement with Xi. The report frames US leverage over Venezuelan oil as notable after describing how Beijing had applied pressure in trade disputes, including by restricting supplies of rare-earth magnets and using soybean purchases as leverage.
Beijing condemns US actions
After Maduro was captured by US forces, China said it was “deeply shocked” by what it described as the blatant use of US force against a sovereign state and action against its president, and it “strongly” condemned the US actions. The report says Beijing called for the immediate release of Maduro and his wife.
A Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson, He Yadong, said no nation has the right to interfere with economic and trade cooperation between China and Venezuela, describing it as cooperation between two sovereign states protected by international and domestic laws. He also said China’s willingness to deepen bilateral economic and trade cooperation would not change, regardless of how Venezuela’s political situation evolves.
Loans, uncertainty, and broader investments
Between 2000 and 2023, Venezuela was the fourth-largest recipient of Beijing’s official credit and received $106 billion in loans from China’s official-sector creditors, according to AidData, the research lab cited in the report. The report says it is unclear how much has been repaid and what remains owed, because Caracas stopped reporting debt details several years ago, citing AidData’s executive director Brad Parks.
While some estimates put outstanding debt at $10 billion, Parks said the figure could be much higher because US sanctions on Venezuelan oil might have delayed repayments, and the report says these loans were structured to be paid down with oil-export proceeds. The story also says that, in China, Maduro’s capture revived memories of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, after which Chinese businesses had to abandon billions in investments following his fall in 2011.
It adds that Chinese firms have invested beyond oil in Venezuela—including telecommunications, railways, and ports—and says those investments are now at risk, citing a Jefferies report. At the same time, the Jefferies analysis cited says Beijing may be able to manage disruption because Venezuelan oil accounts for only a small percentage of China’s oil imports and because China has diversified energy supplies and pivoted toward electrification.
The report also says Venezuela is the only Latin American country with a high-level strategic partnership with China, and it describes Maduro’s ouster as expected to curtail China’s influence in the Western Hemisphere in line with a goal laid out in the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy.
