Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has called out the Trump administration’s attempt to take over Venezuela’s oil industry following the US attack on the country that resulted in the US abduction of President Nicolas Maduro and the killing of dozens of people.
“It’s not American oil. It’s Venezuelan oil,” Massie wrote on X in response to Vice President JD Vance justifying the US military intervention by pointing to the Venezuelan government’s nationalization and expropriation of US-owned oil projects decades ago.
“Oil companies entered into risky deals to develop oil, and the deals were canceled by a prior Venezuelan government. What’s happening: lives of US soldiers are being risked to make those oil companies (not Americans) more profitable,” Massie added.
In another post, Massie noted that one person who stands to gain from the intervention is Paul Singer, a billionaire and GOP mega-donor known for being extremely pro-Israel. Singer has funded a super PAC seeking to oust Massie, who has been under fire from pro-Israel Republicans for his opposition to US aid to the country.
“According to Grok,” Massie wrote on X, referring to the AI chatbot, “Paul Singer, globalist Republican mega-donor who’s already spent $1,000,000 to defeat me in the next election, stands to make billions of dollars on his distressed Citgo investment, now that this administration has taken over Venezuela.”
A US judge recently approved the sale of Citgo, the US-based oil refiner that’s owned by a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA, to an affiliate of Elliott Management, a firm founded by Singer. Since 2019, the US has frozen all of PDVSA’s assets in the US, cutting off the Venezuelan government from Citgo.
Installing a US-friendly government in Caracas could be extremely beneficial for Amber Energy, the Elliott Management affiliate purchasing Citgo for about $5.9 billion. Though, as things stand now, the Trump administration remains a long way from that goal, as Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, is now serving as the acting president.
According to a report from POLITICO, the Trump administration has asked private US oil firms that seek assets from Venezuela to be prepared to go back into the country and invest heavily. “They’re saying, ‘you gotta go in if you want to play and get reimbursed,'” an oil executive told the outlet.
The report said that the offer has been on the table for 10 days, signaling oil companies may have been aware of Trump’s plans to kidnap Maduro, something Massie suggested in response to Trump saying that US oil firms will go into Venezuela and spend billions.
“It seems obvious from this video that the administration worked with big US oil companies before the attack to line up billions of dollars in capital for developing Venezuela’s oil reserves, yet they couldn’t be bothered to consult Congress,” Massie said.
