EXCLUSIVE-Vitol and Trafigura invited to White House on Friday for Venezuelan oil talks

‌U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has invited bosses from commodity trading houses Vitol and Trafigura to the White House on Friday for talks on marketing Venezuelan oil, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

‌U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has invited bosses from commodity trading houses Vitol and Trafigura to the White House on Friday for talks on marketing Venezuelan oil, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. European trading houses have traditionally dominated ⁠global oil trading and they could help the U.S. to sell oil from Venezuela even though Washington wants U.S. majors to play the biggest role. The White House has said it would be hosting U.S. oil majors on Friday, but the invitation to trading houses has not been previously reported.

Reuters could not immediately obtain a full list ​of those invited to the meetings. Trafigura and Vitol declined to comment. The White House did not comment on a specific request on whether Vitol and Trafigura were ‍invited.

WASHINGTON WANTS INDEFINITE CONTROL OF OIL SALES The Trump administration set its sights on Venezuela's oil industry as soon as U.S. forces had captured President Nicolas Maduro on January 3. Washington has said it wants to control Venezuela's oil sales and revenue indefinitely. The U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday it was engaging with commodity marketers and banks to execute and to provide financial support ⁠for Venezuelan ‌crude oil and fuel sales to the country. ⁠It did not specify which companies.

Trump has already said U.S. companies will invest in Venezuela and rebuild its oil industry to produce more oil and bring global energy costs down. U.S. oil ‍majors have said they want "serious guarantees" before they make investments. Washington and Caracas agreed a deal this week to export some 30-50 million barrels of oil worth $2 billion to the United ​States. Years of under-investment and sanctions have led Venezuela's output to fall to around 1 million barrels per day, or just 1% of global supply, ⁠from 3.5 million bpd in the 1970s when it accounted for 7% of global oil.

TRADERS' INVOLVEMENT IN VENEZUELA Vitol and Trafigura were among the most active traders of Venezuelan oil prior to U.S. sanctions ⁠in 2019.

The trading companies might not have first access to Venezuela's crude. In the past, they have marketed Venezuelan oil cargoes received from state oil company PDVSA's European partners, which were U.S. licence holders. But their capacity to have tanker fleets in Venezuela quickly and trade the barrels exceeds that of many joint ⁠venture partners. U.S. oil major Chevron is in talks with the U.S. government to expand a licence to operate in Venezuela so it can sell to other buyers, ⁠as well as increasing crude exports ‌to its own refineries, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Under U.S. licences, Reliance, Chevron, Eni, Repsol, Maurel & Prom and CNPC have intermittently been the main traders of Venezuelan oil since sanctions were imposed in 2019.

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