RoydadNaft –  Oil prices dropped on Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced that the United States had reached a deal to import up to $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude oil, a move expected to increase supplies to the world’s largest oil consumer.

According to Roydad Naft, Brent crude futures fell 35 cents, or 0.6%, to $60.35 per barrel (as of 0928 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 52 cents, or 0.9%, to $56.61 per barrel.

Both benchmarks continued declines of more than $1 from the previous trading session, as market participants anticipate abundant global supply this year.

The agreement between Washington and Caracas may initially involve redirecting cargoes originally destined for China, sources told Reuters. Venezuela has millions of barrels of oil loaded on tankers and in storage that it has been unable to ship since mid-December due to an export blockade imposed by Trump.

This blockade was part of the U.S. pressure campaign against the government of President Nicolás Maduro, which culminated over the weekend with U.S. forces capturing him. Senior Venezuelan officials have called Maduro’s capture a kidnapping and accused the U.S. of attempting to steal the country’s vast oil reserves.

Venezuela will “turn over” between 30 million and 50 million barrels of “sanctioned oil” to the United States, Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday.

“Trump’s post about Venezuelan oil imports exerted downward pressure on crude prices earlier today, but market participants now seem to believe that those volumes could be smaller, with oil prices recovering some of the earlier losses,” said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.

Morgan Stanley analysts estimated that the oil market could reach a surplus of up to 3 million barrels per day in the first half of 2026, based on weak demand growth last year and rising supply from OPEC and non-OPEC producers.

However, the prospect of higher exports of cheaper-to-extract Venezuelan oil could pause the expansion of production capacity in the United States and elsewhere, analysts at BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, said in a note on Wednesday.

Venezuela sells its flagship crude grade, Merey, at around $22 per barrel below Brent for delivery at its ports.

“This raises expectations for oil prices in the medium term, especially if the Venezuelan regime survives,” the BMI analysts said.