Vitol, a Trump company-sponsor, received rights to resell Venezuelan oil. Nothing personal — it's business

Commodities trader Vitol Group loaded its first oil cargo from Venezuela’s shore-based storage tanks, a move set to help clear bottlenecks and pave the way for the South American crude giant to ramp up production, Bloomberg reports.

The vessel ICE Energy loaded half a million barrels of Venezuelan crude over the weekend, according to shipping documents and vessel movements compiled by Bloomberg. The oil loaded for Vitol is expected to be shipped to Bullen Bay, Curacao, for discharge into storage facilities, the documents show.

Vitol and Trafigura Group were tasked by the Trump administration with marketing up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil after the US captured leader Nicolás Maduro and asserted control over the country’s crude earlier this month.

Crude oil exports, a key source of revenue for the country, have plunged in the weeks since US forces seized Maduro as the shadowy companies that had been moving cargoes to Asian markets vanished, spooked by the heavy American naval presence in the region.

Oil exports so far this month have slumped by more than half to 177,000 barrels a day compared with the same period in December. Crude that otherwise would have been shipped abroad is now filling up domestic storage tanks, forcing some the closure of some oil wells.

Vitol declined to comment. The trader, along with Trafigura and Chevron Corp. are the only companies with US permission to export Venezuelan oil.

Vitol’s cargo is the first to come directly from onshore storage tanks, which receive oil via pipeline. The company and Trafigura previously handled 4.8 million barrels of Venezuelan crude that was already aboard ships. That oil is currently being discharged at storage facilities in the Caribbean.

Curacao’s tank farms, relics of the shuttered Isla refinery, can hold millions of barrels. Traders are stashing crude there amid a seasonal demand lull during the northern winter, and may dispatch the cargoes to markets as consumption picks beginning in the spring.

The first US sale of Venezuelan crude was to a company whose senior oil trader donated to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign

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, ‘Financial Times’ reveals.

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.

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.

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.

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 attain 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.

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”.

Vitol and Trafigura will sell the Venezuelan oil they buy from the US on to their customers.

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