WASHINGTON — President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will oversee the arrival Tuesday of the first Venezuelan oil tanker in the US since a major energy agreement was reached between the two countries in August.
A White House official told The Post that the shipment arriving at Corpus Christi, Texas, contains one million barrels of oil, “provided to the United States for free, at no cost to the taxpayer.”
“This will be the first of the billions of barrels to come from this deal,” the official went on.
Rubio will join Trump for the oil tanker’s docking, which will be followed by remarks from the president before Trump moves on to Lubbock for a pre-midterm rally.
It was not immediately clear whether Rubio would attend either event. The planned visit was first reported by the Associated Press Monday.
In late August, Trump announced that the US had struck a deal with Venezuela interim President Delcy Rodriguez to gain control of 65 billion barrels of oil from the South American nation’s reserves, “through a partnership with private business.”
“This Historic Transaction MORE THAN DOUBLES American Oil Reserves, greatly increases our Oil Supply, and will substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans, long into the future, while helping to continue to set Venezuela on a course toward Tremendous Success and Great Prosperity,” Trump said at the time.
Roughly 303 billion barrels worth of crude oil, 17% of the world’s supply, or are held in Venezuela’s reserves.
The August deal followed months of uncertainty in Venezuela after the Jan. 3 capture and extradition of dictator Nicolas Maduro to face narco-terrorism charges in the US.
The tanker tease comes as Trump is trying to shore up Republican support ahead of next week’s midterms, as polls show his party likely to lose the House and in a fight for control of the Senate.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is currently 1.8 percentage points behind his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, in the state’s Senate race, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
The president last appeared in Corpus Christi for a campaign event ahead of the March primary in Texas, in which Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) advanced to a runoff election against Paxton.
The Texas attorney general unseated Cornyn as the incumbent in that May race — with Paxton earning Trump’s endorsement beforehand.
