Republican Rep. Slams Trump Over Handling Of Venezuela's Oil Industry: 'Selling Stolen Oil And Putting Billions Of Dollars In a Bank In Qatar'

He went on to say that the move is "not Constitutional" as "only Congress can appropriate money." "The President can't legally create a second Treasury overseas for his own piggy bank. Wake up Congress," he concluded.

The South American country's oil exports have dropped 75% compared to the months prior to the capture of Maduro, according to a recent report. The Wall Street Journal noted that all the oil that left the South American country over the past days has gone to the United States or has been earmarked to be used in Venezuela's refineries for domestic use.

The development is largely impacting China and Cuba. The former was buying about 440,000 barrels a day at heavily discounted prices and now risks seeing a slowdown. Cuba, largely dependent on Venezuelan oil as it grapples with severe energy challenged, received cargoes smaller than 20,000 barrels a day.

Moreover, as the U.S. continues to seize sanctioned tankers part of the so-called shadow fleet carrying Venezuelan crude, oil that managed to leave the country and could be on its way to the country might not arrive either.

There are about 48 million barrels of oil outside Venezuelan waters that aren't bound for the U.S. Forces have so far seized seven tankers and anticipated more action could come. At least some of the vessels have been taken to the U.S., although some can't reach port because they are in a state of decay. Two did anchor off Galveston Island, near Houston, where some oil companies have large operations.

One of them is Phillips 66, which has two fuel factories that can process Venezuelan crude, company CEO Mark Lashier told the WSJ. "Venezuela was producing three million barrels a day of heavy crude. We've got refineries designed for the long term to process that crude," he said. "We really believe that this is an opportunity for Venezuela to return back into the capitalist fold."

The Trump administration has been brokering sales of Venezuelan crude. A recent report showed that the first one went to Vitol, a global oil trading firm whose senior U.S.-based trader has been a major donor to Trump's re-election campaign.

John Addison, a senior trader at Vitol, was involved in securing a roughly $250 million deal for Venezuelan oil. Addison donated about $6 million to political action committees backing Trump's 2024 re-election effort, including $5 million to Maga Inc in October, according to OpenSecrets.