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The first US sale of Venezuelan crude was to a company whose senior oil trader donated to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and attended a White House meeting with the president last week.
John Addison, a senior trader at Vitol who donated about $6mn to political action committees backing Trump’s re-election campaign, was involved in his company’s efforts to secure a $250mn deal for Venezuelan crude.
The deal kick-started the US president’s controversial plan to sell up to 50mn barrels of Venezuelan oil.
Addison’s donations to Trump’s re-election campaign included $5mn in October 2024 to Maga Inc, according to a database of donors from OpenSecrets, and more than $1mn to two other Trump-aligned Pacs.
Addison joined Ben Marshall, head of Vitol’s US arm, to address Trump during a high-profile meeting with industry chiefs at the White House last Friday. Vitol was the only company with two top officials at the talks.
Addison pledged to Trump at the event that Vitol would get the best price possible for Venezuelan oil for the US, “so that the influence you have over the Venezuelans will ensure that you get what you want”.
Vitol said Addison’s donations, which made the senior trader one of the most generous Trump supporters in Houston, were made in a private capacity.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said: “President Trump always does what is in the best interest of the American people, such as brokering this historic energy deal with Venezuela immediately following the arrest of narcoterrorist Nicolás Maduro. The media’s continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are a tired attempt to distract from the incredible work only this president is capable of achieving.”
Trafigura, another global trading house, also bought $250mn of Venezuelan oil, said two people familiar with the deals. The company spent $525,000 on lobbying in the US in 2024 and 2025, according to OpenSecrets.
A Department of Energy official said Vitol and Trafigura are among the largest energy traders in the world and both were selected because they were “willing and able to move the initial transactions expeditiously”.
“The energy department will continue to explore all options as sales continue,” the official said.
Vitol and Trafigura will sell the Venezuelan oil they buy from the US on to their customers.
The White House has said the US plans to control Venezuela’s oil industry “indefinitely” following its capture of strongman leader Nicolás Maduro on January 3. It has established a naval embargo of the Caribbean nation and is encouraging western oil companies to invest $100bn to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure and boost oil production.
Washington has required the “majority” of the oil be sold to US buyers, said one administration official, but Vitol and Trafigura did not comment on whether there were any restrictions on reselling the crude.
Vitol’s US business is headquartered in Houston. The administration official said additional sales of Venezuelan crude were expected in the “coming days and weeks”.
US energy secretary Chris Wright on Thursday said the US had been able to sell Venezuelan oil at prices 30 per cent higher than the Maduro-led government had achieved three weeks ago.
US sanctions had previously forced Caracas to sell its oil at a steep discount, typically to small, privately owned “teapot” refineries in China.
The oil industry was a big source of donations to Trump, who promised to sweep away regulations if executives supported his campaign during a meeting at his Mar-a-Lago estate in May 2024.
Chevron, the only US oil major with an established presence in Venezuela, spent $9.2mn on lobbying and made $10mn in campaign donations in 2024, mostly to Republicans. Similar to its rival ExxonMobil and other big US companies, Chevron donated to Trump’s inauguration.
Chevron is in talks to have US authorities amend its licence this week so it can produce and export more Venezuelan oil.
The prime minister of Curaçao, Gilmar Pisas, on Thursday said the first shipment of crude from Venezuela bought by Vitol and Trafigura had arrived at the Caribbean island’s oil storage terminal at Bullen Bay.
Originally built by Shell, the terminal is able to receive supertankers carrying more than 1mn barrels of oil. Most US ports are unable to accommodate tankers of this size when they are fully loaded because water channels are too narrow and shallow.
Pisas said Bullen Bay had been designated as one of the storage and distribution hubs for Venezuelan crude and would be used by Trafigura and Vitol.
Additional reporting by Sam Learner in New York