Crude Prices Dip As Trump Announces Supply Of Venezuelan Oil

Oil prices fell on Wednesday after President Donald Trump said the United States had reached a deal to import up to $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude, a move that is expected to increase supplies to the world's largest oil consumer.

Brent crude futures fell 35 cents, or 0.6%, to $60.35 a barrel by 0928 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 52 cents, or 0.9%, to $56.61 a barrel.

Both benchmarks extended declines of more than $1 from the previous trading session, as market participants expected ample global supply this year.

The deal between Washington and Caracas could initially require cargoes that were bound for China to be rerouted, sources told Reuters. Venezuela has millions of barrels of oil loaded on tankers and in storage tanks that it has been unable to ship since mid-December due to a blockade on exports imposed by Trump.

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The blockade was part of a U.S. pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government that culminated in U.S. forces capturing him over the weekend. Top Venezuelan officials have called Maduro's capture a kidnapping and accused the U.S. of trying to steal the country's vast oil reserves.

Venezuela will be "turning over" between 30 million and 50 million barrels of "sanctioned oil" to the U.S., Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday.

"The Trump post on Venezuelan oil imports put downward pressure on crude prices earlier today, but market participants seem to believe now that those volumes could be smaller, with oil prices paring earlier losses," said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.

Morgan Stanley analysts estimated the oil market could reach a surplus of as many as 3 million barrels per day in the first half of 2026, based on weak growth in demand last year and rising supply from OPEC and non-OPEC producers.

However, the prospect of higher, cheaply extracted Venezuelan oil exports could pause expansion of productive capacity in the U.S. and elsewhere, analysts at BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, said in a note on Wednesday.

Venezuela has been selling its flagship crude grade, Merey, at around $22 per barrel below Brent for delivery at its ports.

"That raises the expected price of oil over the medium term, especially if the Venezuelan regime survives," the BMI analysts said. 

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