Foreign Affairs

Eugene

(66,807 posts) Fri Jan 9, 2026, 07:47 PM 19 hrs ago

Trump supporter and oil magnate Harry Sargeant advising US on Venezuela, sources say

Source: Reuters

Exclusive-Trump supporter and oil magnate Harry Sargeant advising US on Venezuela, sources say

By Erin Banco, Sarah Kinosian and Matt Spetalnick
Thu, January 8, 2026 at 3:09 PM EST 6 min read

WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Billionaire energy entrepreneur and Republican donor Harry Sargeant III and his team are advising the Trump administration on how the U.S. can engineer a return of some American oil companies to Venezuela, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

The involvement of Sargeant, who has long-standing ties to Venezuela’s oil industry, underscores the Trump administration's reliance on U.S. oil executives for guidance on how to administer the country's energy sector following last week's dramatic U.S. military operation that resulted in the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday the U.S. would refine and sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, as U.S. forces continued seizing oil tankers ‌linked to Venezuela.

"That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it is disbursed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people," he said.

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Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-trump-supporter-oil-magnate-200927653.html

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Trump supporter and oil magnate Harry Sargeant advising US on Venezuela, sources say (Original Post) Eugene 19 hrs ago OP

50 million barrels lapfog_1 19 hrs ago #1

lapfog_1

(31,671 posts)

1. 50 million barrels

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Fri Jan 9, 2026, 08:17 PM

19 hrs ago

Fun with math

50,000,000 X 35 gallons per barrel times $3.00 /gallon yields at most 5.25 Billion USD.

There are about 29 million people in Venezuela. so about $181 per person or $725 for a family of 4.

Now... extracting transport and refining 50M barrels of oil will likely cost at least 50% of the final retail amount.

so that family of 4 will get a one time payment of around $362.

Currently, one kilo of chicken meat ( no bones ) is around $30 usd... a kilo of rice is $5 usd A few gallons of black market gasoline is $40 usd to travel around 200 km ( 120 miles ).

So this one time payment will pay for food and energy of $362 will last, at most, one week. But may not feed the family of four any thing more than rice and a few beans, veggies... and a little meat ( IF they can find any ).

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