A major Trump donor helped his firm land one of the administration’s most lucrative Venezuela oil deals, even though his own company says he lacked the expertise to negotiate it, according to a new report.
Reuters reported that two days after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, Energy Secretary Chris Wright called John Addison, then a senior trader at commodities giant Vitol, and asked whether the firm wanted to sell Venezuela’s crude to global buyers.
“I thought that he was just going to call to get an update on the market,” Addison told Reuters. “The phone call went a different way.”
Within days, Vitol and its rival Trafigura had special licenses to market Venezuela’s oil without a competitive bidding process. A Texas Christian University energy finance expert estimates the traders are making $3 to $3.50 in profit on every barrel. With more than 200 million barrels exported so far this year, that adds up to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Addison was not an obvious choice. He wasn’t Vitol’s regional CEO, and his specialty was trading U.S. gasoline, not Latin American crude. Vitol told Reuters that Addison didn’t have the technical knowledge to negotiate an international crude contract and brought in the company’s crude team after Wright’s call.
What Addison did have was political connections. He and his wife gave $7 million to political action committees in 2024 to help elect Donald Trump, including $5 million to Make America Great Again. He also gave $300,000 to a super PAC that supported Vice President JD Vance’s 2022 Senate race.
Addison told Reuters that Vance had vouched for him to Wright, and a U.S. official confirmed it. According to a source, the two men met at Montana’s Yellowstone Club a week before the invasion, although both deny that meeting took place.
The Energy Department said it picked Vitol because it is the world’s largest energy trader.
Addison also has a complicated history. He was named as the most senior Vitol executive in an alleged gasoline price-manipulation scheme in California, which Vitol and SK Energy settled for $50 million in 2024 without admitting wrongdoing.
By Jan. 9, Addison was at the White House for a televised meeting with Trump and oil executives.
“We’re here to ensure that you are going to be able to move all of this oil all around the world at the best price possible so that the influence that you have over the Venezuelans will ensure that you get what you want,” he told the president.
Addison retired from Vitol in March and now chairs Wright’s energy policy advisory board.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, said the new reporting “raises even more questions about who knew what and when.”