Energy Secretary Called Vance Donor at Vitol Two Days After Maduro Capture. Venezuelan Oil Licenses Followed

The U.S. government's no-bid decision to hand Venezuelan crude sales to two trading houses has a new wrinkle: the man who took the call from the Energy Secretary was a longtime financial backer of the Vice President.

According to a Reuters investigation published Nov. 11, Energy Secretary Chris Wright phoned Vitol gasoline trader John Addison at his Houston desk on Jan. 5. That was two days after the U.S. operation that unseated Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and killed up to 100 people. Wright wanted to know whether Vitol wanted to sell the country's oil.

Addison confirmed the call. So did the Department of Energy.

The call and the licenses

The administration planned to market Venezuelan crude to global buyers to finance the country's political transition. Within days, Vitol and rival Trafigura had special licenses to do it. The two companies have since earned hundreds of millions of dollars from the work, according to Reuters.

The administration skipped competitive bidding. Its argument, as described in Reuters' reporting, is that speed would stabilize Venezuela's economy.

Addison, 48, was not the obvious person to get that call. He was a senior trader who specialized in U.S. gasoline, not the firm's regional chief executive or a Latin American crude specialist. Vitol told Reuters he lacked the expertise to negotiate a crude contract, so the company brought in its crude team after the call.

The Vance connection

Addison told Reuters that Vance had vouched for him to Wright. A U.S. official, speaking anonymously, confirmed that Vance told Wright at least a year before the call that Addison was a trustworthy person in the energy industry.

Addison's financial support for Vance is documented. FEC records show he gave $300,000 in 2022 to a political action committee backing Vance's Ohio Senate bid. Reuters also reports that Addison and his wife gave $7 million to political committees in 2024, including $5 million to Make America Great Again.

Addison joined a televised White House meeting on Jan. 9 with President Donald Trump and executives from ExxonMobil, Chevron and other oil companies. He left Vitol in March. In July, the Energy Department named him co-chair of its advisory board.

The disputed Montana meeting

The most serious allegation in the story rests on one anonymous source. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Vance and Addison met at Montana's Yellowstone Club on Dec. 27, a week before the invasion. The person, who got an account of the meeting from Addison, said Vance asked how quickly Venezuelan crude could be sold if the U.S. gained control of the supply. Addison allegedly said Vitol was uniquely placed to do it.

Both Addison and Vance's office deny the meeting happened. "Anyone who says so is absolutely making it up because I've never told a single soul that was the case," Addison told Reuters.

Flight records reviewed by Reuters show Addison's private Embraer jet and Vance's Air Force Two on the same tarmac at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport that day. That places the aircraft together. It does not establish that the two men met or what they discussed.

Both Vitol and Trafigura told Reuters they had no advance knowledge of U.S. military operations in Venezuela.

What the Energy Department says

The Energy Department rejects the idea that personal ties drove the decision. It says Wright and Vance never discussed selling Venezuelan oil, and that it chose Vitol because it is the world's largest energy and commodity trader.

Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent letters to Vitol and Trafigura in January asking how they secured the licenses.

The money

Venezuela has exported more than 200 million barrels of crude this year, according to U.S. government data. A confidential KPMG report on the U.S.-run Venezuela Custody Account, reviewed by Reuters, shows Vitol and Trafigura supplied 61% of the $12.26 billion deposited through September. Almost all of that went back to Venezuela at its central bank's request, and U.S. officials approved each payout.

What the traders keep is unclear. Tom Seng, a finance professor at Texas Christian University, estimates marketers earn $3 to $3.50 a barrel, a margin of roughly 3.5% to 4%. Vitol's operating margins over the past three years ranged from 1% to 3%, according to Reuters' review of its annual reports. Reuters could not verify Seng's estimate. Both firms call their contracts with Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, confidential.

Addison's name also appears in an earlier legal matter. In 2024, Vitol and SK Energy paid $50 million to settle California's gasoline price-manipulation case, which named Addison as Vitol's most senior executive in the alleged scheme. Neither company admitted wrongdoing.

What remains open

No one has produced a document showing Vance directed the licenses to Vitol, and the one account of the Montana meeting is denied by both participants. The documented facts are narrower: a donor, vouched for by the Vice President, got the Energy Secretary's call, and the companies won licenses without a bid. Whether Vitol's cut matches Seng's estimate depends on contracts neither company will release.