The strange math that shows how Trump got Venezuela to ‘gift’ oil to the United States

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President Donald Trump made an extraordinary announcement this week: Venezuela had gifted the United States 1 million barrels of oil – and it didn’t cost American taxpayers a dime.

Tuesday’s announcement apparently surprised one important party to the deal: the producer of the Venezuelan oil.

North American Blue Energy Partners, the US government’s partner in a major Venezuelan oil investment, initially announced Tuesday that the United States had purchased the 1 million barrels of oil, albeit at a substantially reduced price. After Trump said the oil was free, NABEP changed its statement to echo the president: The oil would arrive at a Texas port at no cost to the US taxpayer.

The statements were both technically accurate: Venezuela is giving the United States a big gift of oil.

The gift is even bigger than the 1 million barrels of “free” oil.

Trump made the oil-gift announcement on the way to a political rally in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he would show off oil tankers arriving at port with the first proceeds of NABEP’s partnership in Venezuela.

“We took over Venezuela very successfully, and they’ve sent me as a gift a boatload of a million barrels of oil, and I’m giving that to the United States of America,” Trump told reporters .

It wasn’t a figure of speech. The oil would be free for US taxpayers, Trump later wrote in a Truth Social post .

“Thanks to our renewed relationship with Venezuela, which has turned out to be a truly excellent one, the Oil is being provided to the United States at NO cost to the American Taxpayer,” Trump wrote.

At a rally on Tuesday evening, Trump said the United States’ January military operation in Venezuela that ousted President Nicolás Maduro represented “the greatest oil victory in history.”

“See that little ship out there? It’s got 1 million barrels of oil on it from Venezuela, and we’re celebrating,” Trump said. “To the victor belong the spoils, right?”

In an August agreement that the White House called the “biggest oil deal in world history,” the Pentagon took an equity stake in the company that owns NABEP, the second-largest private oil producer in Venezuela. NABEP’s owner is controlled by the family of Alejandro Betancourt López, a controversial international businessman based in the United Kingdom.

As part of the deal , the US State Department has the right to purchase the first 20% of the Venezuelan oil produced by NABEP at $30 a barrel – the cost of production. That’s significantly lower than the price it could fetch on the open market.

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NABEP announced Tuesday that the first proceeds of its joint venture with the US government would arrive on two tankers in Corpus Christi.

“The cargo is part of the U.S. government’s right to purchase 20% of NABEP’s production at cost, with no markup, a provision of the company’s August agreement with the U.S. Departments of State and War,” NABEP said in a statement.

Later that day, NABEP updated its statement.

“To recognize the historic nature of the agreement between NABEP and its new anchor buyer, the United States government, NABEP delivered the first million barrels of oil at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer,” the company added in its amended press release .

How is that possible?

NABEP agreed to deliver the 1 million barrels of oil for no up-front cost. It would make up for it by charging the government more for the oil in subsequent deliveries.

“The cargo is being delivered pursuant to a commercial arrangement under which its value is settled through adjustments to future offtake pricing, rather than an upfront cash payment,” a person familiar with the deal’s terms said.

In other words, the first million barrels were sold to the United States for $0 a barrel. The company will recoup those costs via deferred payments. For example, the next million barrels could be sold to the United States for $60 a barrel. Those shipments would even out to $30 a barrel.

A spokesperson for the White House acknowledged that only the first shipment from NABEP would come at no cost to the US taxpayer.

So everyone was truthful: The oil delivered to the United States this week was technically provided at no cost to the US taxpayer. And it was part of a previously arranged (and, on Tuesday, slightly amended) purchase agreement with NABEP.

Even at $60 a barrel, the oil technically will arrive at no cost to the taxpayer.

That’s because Venezuelan oil is selling for $80. So Venezuela will be sending the United States oil at a greatly reduced price from what it could fetch on the open market.

The Trump administration argues that without foreign investment, the country could not take advantage of its oil riches. And the deal, regardless of the price of oil, will support Venezuelan jobs.

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That may be true. Venezuela’s socialist regimes left its oil infrastructure to decay over the past several decades, reducing its capacity to produce oil to around 1.2 million barrels per day, down from more than 3 million barrels in the 1990s.

But the US extracting oil for cheap and selling it for a large profit is at best a bad look and at worst exploitative, critics say.

“President Trump has purposefully covered up the details of his Venezuela oil scheme,” Illinois Democratic Rep. Dan Casten, a fierce critic of the administration’s Venezuela policy, told CNN. “We still don’t know exactly how much money is involved or where that money is going.”

But Trump has always said Venezuela’s oil was for America’s taking.

On January 3, when announcing the capture of Maduro, Trump said the military operation was about securing Venezuela’s resources, which are key to making America rich.

“The future will be determined by the ability to protect commerce and territory and resources that are core to national security,” Trump said . “These are core to our national security. Just like tariffs are, they’ve made our country rich and they’ve made our national security strong, stronger than ever before. But these are the iron laws that have always determined global power. And we’re going to keep it that way.”

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本周，唐纳德·特朗普总统发表了一项非同寻常的声明：委内瑞拉向美国赠送了 100 万桶石油——而美国纳税人一分钱也没花。

周二的声明显然让该交易的一个重要参与方感到意外：委内瑞拉石油生产商。

美国政府在委内瑞拉一项大型石油投资项目中的合作伙伴——北美蓝色能源伙伴公司（North American Blue Energy Partners，简称NABEP）周二最初宣布，美国已购买了100万桶石油，但价格大幅降低。在特朗普表示石油免费后，NABEP修改了声明，与总统的说法一致：石油将运抵德克萨斯州的一个港口，美国纳税人无需承担任何费用。

这两种说法在技术上都是正确的：委内瑞拉正在向美国赠送大量的石油。

这份礼物甚至比那100万桶“免费”石油还要珍贵。

特朗普在前往德克萨斯州科珀斯克里斯蒂参加政治集会的途中宣布了这项石油捐赠计划。他将在集会上展示抵达港口的油轮，这些油轮运载着NABEP在委内瑞拉合作项目的首批收益。

“我们非常成功地接管了委内瑞拉，他们送给我一船一百万桶石油作为礼物，我要把这些石油交给美利坚合众国，”特朗普告诉记者。

这并非比喻。特朗普后来在Truth Social网站上发帖写道，这些石油将免费提供给美国纳税人。

特朗普写道：“多亏了我们与委内瑞拉重建的关系，事实证明这种关系非常好，美国无需支付任何费用就能获得石油。”

周二晚间的一次集会上，特朗普表示，美国1月份在委内瑞拉发动的推翻总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗的军事行动，代表着“历史上最伟大的石油胜利”。

“看到那边那艘小船了吗？上面载着100万桶来自委内瑞拉的石油，我们正在庆祝，”特朗普说。“胜利者理应获得战利品，对吧？”

在白宫称之为“世界历史上最大的石油交易”的8月份达成的一项协议中，五角大楼收购了委内瑞拉第二大私营石油生产商NABEP的母公司股份。NABEP的所有者由颇具争议的国际商人、常驻英国的亚历杭德罗·贝坦科特·洛佩斯家族控制。

作为协议的一部分，美国国务院有权以每桶30美元的价格购买委内瑞拉国家石油公司（NABEP）生产的前20%的委内瑞拉石油——即生产成本。这远低于其在公开市场上的价格。

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NABEP周二宣布，其与美国政府合资企业的首笔收益将由两艘油轮运抵科珀斯克里斯蒂。

NABEP在一份声明中表示：“这批货物是美国政府有权按成本价购买NABEP 20%的产量的一部分，不加价，这是该公司8月份与美国国务院和战争部达成的协议中的一项条款。”

当天晚些时候，NABEP更新了声明。

“为了表彰 NABEP 与其新的主要买家——美国政府之间达成的历史性协议，NABEP 向美国纳税人免费交付了首批 100 万桶石油，”该公司在其修改后的新闻稿中补充道。

这怎么可能？

NABEP同意免费交付100万桶石油。该公司将在后续交付石油时向政府收取更高的价格，以此弥补之前的损失。

一位熟悉交易条款的人士表示：“这批货物是根据一项商业安排交付的，根据该安排，货物的价值是通过调整未来的承购价格来结算的，而不是预先支付现金。”

换句话说，前一百万桶原油以每桶0美元的价格卖给了美国。该公司将通过延期付款的方式收回这些成本。例如，接下来的一百万桶原油可以以每桶60美元的价格卖给美国。这样一来，每桶原油的平均售价将达到30美元。

白宫发言人承认，只有 NABEP 的第一批货物不会花费美国纳税人任何费用。

所以大家都说了实话：本周运抵美国的石油，从技术上讲，美国纳税人无需为此支付任何费用。而且，这是此前与北美石油天然气公司（NABEP）达成的一项（周二略作修改的）采购协议的一部分。

即使油价达到每桶 60 美元，从技术上讲，纳税人也无需承担任何费用就能获得石油。

这是因为委内瑞拉石油的售价为每桶80美元。因此，委内瑞拉将以远低于其在公开市场上售价的价格向美国输送石油。

特朗普政府认为，如果没有外国投资，委内瑞拉就无法利用其丰富的石油资源。而且，无论油价如何，这项协议都将有助于委内瑞拉的就业。

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这或许属实。过去几十年里，委内瑞拉的社会主义政权任由其石油基础设施衰败，导致其石油日产量从上世纪90年代的300多万桶下降到如今的约120万桶。

批评人士表示，美国以低价开采石油并以高价出售，往好了说是形象不佳，往坏了说是剥削。

“特朗普总统故意掩盖了他在委内瑞拉的石油计划的细节，”伊利诺伊州民主党众议员丹·卡斯滕告诉CNN。卡斯滕是特朗普政府委内瑞拉政策的强烈批评者。“我们仍然不清楚究竟涉及多少资金，也不知道这些钱的去向。”

但特朗普一直声称委内瑞拉的石油是属于美国的。

1月3日，特朗普在宣布抓捕马杜罗时表示，此次军事行动是为了确保委内瑞拉的资源安全，而这些资源是使美国致富的关键。

特朗普说：“未来将取决于我们保护商业、领土和国家安全核心资源的能力。这些对我们的国家安全至关重要。就像关税一样，它们使我们的国家富裕起来，也使我们的国家安全比以往任何时候都更加强大。但这些是决定全球力量的铁律。我们将继续保持这种格局。”