Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Airlangga: Trump's Claim on Venezuelan Oil Has No Global Impact

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto assessed that US President Donald Trump's claim that Washington would get 30-50 million barrels of oil from Venezuela would not have a significant impact on the global energy market.

According to him, Venezuela's current oil production capacity is below 1 million barrels per day, or less than 1 percent of world oil production, so that the transfer of that much oil has little effect on global supply.

"No (impact). First, Venezuela's oil production is below 1 million barrels of oil per day, so it is below 1 percent. So globally (impact) there is none," said Airlangga as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, January 9.

He underlined that the dynamics are more influential for the US energy market than the world market as a whole.

The 47th US President announced on Tuesday, January 6, that the interim government in Venezuela agreed to hand over between 30-50 million barrels of oil to the US, which would be sold on the market at market prices and the proceeds would be managed under his administration's orders.

Trump hopes this step can help meet some of the US energy needs and provide economic benefits for both countries.

If calculated assuming an oil price of around 56 US dollars per barrel, the volume of 30-50 million barrels is estimated to be worth up to around 2.8 billion US dollars (around Rp47 trillion).

Regarding the question regarding the transition of the Venezuelan government, Airlangga said the Indonesian Government is still monitoring the development of the situation.

"We just monitor it," he said.