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Wright Describes U.S. Control of Venezuelan Oil Sales on NBC

January 10, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:08:44

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright told NBC’s Tom Llamas that, less than a week after Venezuela’s leader was arrested and placed in U.S. custody, a small number of Americans were communicating with a small number of Venezuelans to stabilize the country’s economy and security, according to the Department of Energy’s upload of the January 9, 2026 interview. Wright confirmed he was personally in open conversations with Venezuelan counterparts and said they were being constructive.

Wright said President Trump had used a blockade on Venezuelan oil as leverage to enforce sanctions, and that the United States would control the sale of Venezuelan crude. He argued the arrangement removes corruption from the system, sells the oil at a higher price and generates more funds than before, with proceeds placed in accounts controlled by the U.S. government and funds sent to Venezuela — more money, he said, than its central authorities had seen in months.

Played a clip of Senator Chris Murphy calling the plan stealing Venezuelan oil at gunpoint, Wright called both premises nonsense and said the United States was marketing the oil, not stealing it. He described the approach as the road to peace and prosperity in Venezuela and the United States and a hemisphere focused on commerce rather than criminality, as he put it.

Why it matters

The interview is the Energy Secretary’s first detailed defense of the post-arrest Venezuela oil arrangement — U.S.-controlled sales and accounts — against the charge that the United States is seizing the country’s resource.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: Secretary Wright’s statement that the United States sent more money to Venezuela’s central authorities that day than they had seen in months, under the U.S.-controlled oil sales arrangement. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no verdict is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins NBC’s Tom Llamas - January 9, 2026”, 2026-01-10 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-01-10). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.