Rubio Details Plan to Sell Venezuela’s Oil and Guide the Country’s Post-Maduro Future

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that a plan to seize and sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil is designed to give the Trump Administration “tremendous leverage” to stabilize the country after last weekend’s U.S. raid removed President Nicolás Maduro from power.

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Speaking to reporters at the Capitol after a classified briefing for the full Senate, Rubio said the oil would be sold on the open market at prevailing prices, with the U.S. controlling the proceeds rather than Venezuela’s “interim” authorities. The goal, he said, is to prevent corruption and ensure the money benefits ordinary Venezuelans.

“We are going to take between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil,” Rubio said. “We’re going to sell it in the marketplace at market rates, not at the discounts Venezuela was getting. That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it is disbursed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people, not corruption, not the regime.”

Rubio’s comments offered the most detailed public explanation yet of the Administration’s plans for Venezuela, outlining how the U.S. intends to use control of the country’s oil revenue to shape what comes next. He described the oil plan as the first phase of a broader, three-step strategy for Venezuela: stabilization, recovery, and transition. The Administration is starting with stabilization, Rubio said, because “we don’t want it descending into chaos.”

When asked how much this effort would cost U.S. taxpayers, he replied, “It’s not going to cost us anything.”

The remarks came as the U.S. military sharply escalated its pressure on Venezuela’s oil exports. On Wednesday, American forces seized two tankers carrying Venezuelan crude, including a Russian-flagged vessel that had been evading U.S. authorities for weeks. One ship was intercepted in the North Atlantic between Scotland and Iceland for violating U.S. sanctions, while another—a stateless “dark fleet” tanker—was apprehended in international waters in the Caribbean and escorted to the United States.

Together, the tanker seizures and what Rubio has called an American “quarantine” of Venezuelan oil are designed to choke off exports that have long been the country’s primary source of revenue. If the United States ultimately takes control of 30 million to 50 million barrels—roughly two months of Venezuela’s typical production—it would be worth an estimated $1.8 billion to $3 billion at current prices. It remains unclear what exactly Venezuela would receive in return.

Rubio confirmed that the interim Venezuelan leadership wants one of the seized tankers’ cargo to be folded into the broader oil deal.

“They understand that the only way they can move oil and generate revenue and not have economic collapse is if they cooperate and work with the United States,” he said, adding that the administration was “about to execute on a deal.”

Read more: Who is Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s New Leader?

In the recovery phase, Rubio said the Trump Administration wants to ensure that “American, Western and other companies have access to the Venezuelan market in a way that’s fair,” while also beginning a process of national reconciliation. That would include amnesty for opposition figures, the release of political prisoners, and efforts to rebuild civil society, he said. The final phase would be a transition led by Venezuelans themselves.

“In the end, it will be up to the Venezuelan people to transform their country,” Rubio said, adding that “more deals” with the interim government were expected, though he declined to provide details.

Inside the Senate briefing room, Administration officials laid out those plans in more detail, lawmakers from both parties said afterward. But the mood was divided. Republican Senators largely praised the strategy and the leverage created by the oil crackdown. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said the “big leverage” was controlling the flow of oil and money. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said Rubio’s discussion of phased plans was “instructive,” though he declined to elaborate.

Democrats were far more skeptical. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut called the plan “insane” and said that the Trump Administration is “proposing to steal Venezuela’s oil at gun point forever and use that leverage to run the country.” Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont warned that history showed regimes were often willing to impose immense suffering on their own citizens to stay in power.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was “totally dissatisfied” with the Administration’s answers and accused the Administration of relying on “the most unreliable corrupt people” to help govern Venezuela and warned that the strategy was “fraught with peril.”

“The American people need answers,” Schumer said as he called for public hearings. “They’re avoiding all public discussion to talk to us in this SCIF [Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility] where we didn’t get adequate answers even to our questions.”

Beyond Washington, conditions inside Venezuela remain tense. Armed pro-government militias known as colectivos have been deployed across Caracas in recent days, with residents reporting interrogations and phone searches for signs of support for the U.S. intervention, according to a Venezuelan journalist in Caracas who spoke with TIME.

Read more: How Trump’s Venezuela Takeover Could Change the World

At the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said significant private-sector interest was emerging around Venezuela’s oil industry as the Administration worked with the interim government.

“There’s a lot of private sector engagement that’s happening right now,” Leavitt said, noting that Energy Secretary Chris Wright was meeting with oil executives and would host more discussions at the White House later this week. She said President Trump was expected to meet with oil industry leaders on Friday to discuss what she called “the immense opportunity that is before these oil companies right now.”

Trump is still open to using more military force inside Venezuela if the remnants of Maduro’s government now running the country don’t comply with his demands, Leavitt said. “At this point in time, as you know, there are no troops on the ground in Venezuela,” said Leavitt, who added, “Diplomacy is always the first option. As you saw, he tried that with Nicolás Maduro but unfortunately he is an illegitimate dictator and an unserious person.”

The use of armed pro-government militias inside Venezuela to find and intimidate people supportive of Maduro’s ouster “would not be consistent” with Trump’s expectations for the interim government, Leavitt said.