Venezuelan oil is already flowing – FT: The buyer of the first cargo was Donald Trump’s generous election financier

On Thursday, an oil tanker anchored off the tropical island of Curaçao. The ship’s contents began to be unloaded at the Bullen Bay warehouse, but the final destination of the cargo was the United States, says Financial Times.

The tanker’s shipment of Venezuelan crude was the first shipment out of the country since the US administration’s kidnapping of the president Nicolás Maduron at the beginning of January. The United States has said it controls the South American nation’s vast oil reserves. President Donald Trump’s there are plans to sell 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil.

Supervalta wasted no time in starting trading. The first cargo was sold to two industry giants, For Vitol and Trafiguralle. Both of them had announced that they would buy Venezuelan crude oil for $250 million.

It didn’t take long before the public began to talk about insider trading. The Financial Times reports that one of the buyers of the first batch of oil has generously supported Donald Trump’s election campaign. Vitol’s leading oil trader John Addison has paid no less than six million dollars of his own funds in election support for Trump.

Addison also attended a White House meeting a week ago where oil company executives discussed Venezuelan oil with Trump. At the meeting, Addison promised Trump that Vitol would get the best possible price for the Venezuelan oil for the United States.

Over the past couple of years, Trafigura has spent more than $500,000 lobbying the oil industry in the United States.

White House Press Secretary Taylor Rogers rushed to shoot down the FT’s story: “The media’s constant attempts to develop conflicts of interest are a tired attempt to distract from the incredible work that only this president is capable of.”

In the past two weeks, Venezuelan oil has aroused many kinds of passions in the public. According to the US CNN, Trump has said that US oil companies would invest more than one hundred billion dollars in the development of Venezuela’s dilapidated oil sector. Respectively ExxonMobilin managing director Darren Woods has held Venezuela “not suitable for investment”.

US Secretary of Energy Chris Wrightin according to Venezuela’s oil trade has gotten off to a promising start.

“We’re getting 30 percent more for the same barrel than they were getting three weeks ago,” Wright said At the meeting of the US Energy Agency.