Credit : The White House's X
The first shipment of crude oil under the United States’ new energy agreement involving Venezuela has arrived in Corpus Christi, Texas, the White House announced on Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
In a post on X, the White House said: “The first shipment from the historic Venezuela oil deal arrives TODAY in Corpus Christi, Texas!” It added that, thanks to President Donald Trump’s leadership, “this oil will belong to America and will be refined at home, increasing domestic supply and LOWERING PRICES at the pump.”
The post carried a graphic describing the agreement as the “biggest oil deal in world history” and saying the United States had “secured more than 65 billion barrels in historic deal with Venezuela.”
According to a statement from producer North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), two tankers carrying 1 million barrels of Venezuelan crude arrived in Corpus Christi. The company said it delivered the first million barrels at no cost to the US taxpayer “to recognise the historic nature of the agreement” with its new anchor buyer, the US government.
NABEP said the cargo marks the start of a larger deal with the US Departments of State and War. Under that arrangement, the US government has the right to buy 20 per cent of NABEP’s production at cost, with no markup, and holds a 35 per cent equity stake in the company’s parent firm. NABEP says it holds rights to commercialise more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves in Venezuela.
President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Port of Corpus Christi on Tuesday to view one of the newly arrived tankers, NABEP said. Reuters, as carried by Devdiscourse, reported that one of the vessels served as a backdrop for Trump’s speech, and that a White House official said the oil would be sold by the government to refineries run by Exxon Mobil and Venezuelan-owned Citgo Petroleum.
“They’ve sent me as a gift a boatload of a million barrels of oil, and I’m giving that to the United States of America,” Trump told reporters, according to Reuters. He later described it on Truth Social as the “first shipment of BILLIONS of Barrels to come.”
The terms have drawn scrutiny. The Washington Post reported that the shipment was not free but deeply discounted, citing two people familiar with it who said the deal allows the US to buy NABEP’s crude at US$30 a barrel, less than a third of the current market price. NABEP’s own statement was revised after release; it initially described the cargo as part of Washington’s right to buy production at cost before being updated to say it came at no cost.
“This cargo reached Texas in just over a week. Crude from the Middle East can take more than a month,” NABEP chief executive Alejandro Betancourt said. “This first shipment since the US-NABEP deal will be followed by thousands of such arrivals.”
According to Reuters, the pact was struck after US forces captured and removed former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power in January, and it handed NABEP 14 additional oilfields on top of the three it already operated, without a competitive process. The company says it directly employs more than 5,000 people in Venezuela and is targeting output of more than 1 million barrels of oil a day.
The arrival came as Trump campaigned for Republican candidates in Texas ahead of next week’s midterm elections, the Washington Post reported.
Credit : The White House’s X
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