Venezuela Oil Money Report: $12.26B In, $168.6M Left
The State Department on Thursday, November 12, 2026 released the first accounting of the U.S.-controlled account that collects what buyers pay for Venezuelan crude: from January 3 to September 30, 2026, $12.26 billion came in, $12.11 billion went out (98.8%), and $168.6 million was left. The report was prepared by KPMG, the accounting firm the State Department hired to monitor the account, according to Reuters, AP and Al Jazeera. Oil, petroleum products and natural gas brought in more than $12.1 billion; gold, $108 million; minerals, $22 million; and fertilizer, $24.6 million. Most of the money went back to Venezuela through bank currency auctions that prop up the bolívar. The names of the 20 buyers are redacted.
Until yesterday, this report was one of the open questions in our guide Where is Venezuela’s oil money?: it was promised in April, with no date.
What is known
| Item | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Period | January 3 – September 30, 2026 | Reuters, AP, Al Jazeera |
| Report date | October 29; sent to Congress in early November, made public November 12 | Reuters |
| Length | 53 pages, partly redacted | Al Jazeera |
| Total deposits | $12.26 billion | AP, Al Jazeera |
| Depositors | 20, names redacted | AP, Al Jazeera |
| Total disbursed | $12.11 billion, nearly 99% | Reuters |
| Direct payments to vendors | $133 million | Reuters, AP |
| Balance on September 30 | $168.6 million | AP (Al Jazeera: about $169 million) |
Deposits by sector (Reuters figures; percentages are our math on the $12.26 billion):
| Sector | Millions of dollars | Share of deposits |
|---|---|---|
| Oil, petroleum products and natural gas | more than 12,100 | 98.7% |
| Gold | 108 | 0.88% |
| Fertilizer | 24.6 | 0.20% |
| Minerals | 22 | 0.18% |
- Where the money went: mostly to foreign-exchange auctions run through Venezuelan commercial banks to support the bolívar (Reuters, AP). The New York Times, as cited by MassLive, puts those auctions at about $11.7 billion.
- Vendor payments ($133 million), per AP: $5 million to the Miami law firm Greenberg Traurig; nearly $24 million for dialysis and coal-mining equipment; and $8.7 million to settle Venezuela’s vaccine debts with the Pan American Health Organization.
- The accounts: the first, at Qatar National Bank, took in about $500 million in January, and nearly all of it went back to Venezuelan entities by the end of that month (Al Jazeera). A Treasury-controlled account at Citibank in New York followed, and U.S. officials must approve every outflow.
- Whose money it is: the report says “The funds remain sovereign property of Venezuela,” held “pending disposition for public, governmental, or diplomatic purposes” as determined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, per Reuters. “The report shows the process is working,” a State Department official told Reuters.
- Who bought the oil: the report does not say. The New York Times reported, per Reuters, that most deposits came from Trafigura and Vitol, which got special licenses to sell Venezuelan crude shortly after January 3. That comes from press reporting, not from the report.
How much gold did Venezuela sell through the account?
The report gives a dollar value, $108 million over nine months, not a weight. As our own rough math: at about $4,000 an ounce, close to the November 2026 price, that would be roughly 27,000 troy ounces, or about 0.84 metric tons. Gold prices moved a lot during the year, so the real figure may differ.
It’s small next to oil: more than $110 of crude and gas came in for every $1 of gold. But it is the first official number on how much Venezuelan gold has been sold through the U.S.-approved channel since January. Background: OFAC’s General License 51D lets U.S. companies buy Venezuelan gold, with payment into Treasury-controlled accounts, and state miner Minerven negotiated doré sales to Trafigura bound for U.S. refineries. If you’re a U.S. buyer looking at gold for yourself, our plain-English guide to how to invest in gold covers the options; this page is not investment advice.
What is not known
- Who the 20 buyers are and how much each paid: the names are redacted.
- Who received the dollars from the currency auctions. The report does not identify final recipients, per MassLive.
- How much gold by weight, and which mines it came from. The report gives only dollar values.
- What the $22 million in “minerals” were: the reports we read do not break them down.
- Why the figures don’t fully add up. Al Jazeera cites about $9.4 billion paid to legal entities and $2.9 billion to individuals; together that is more than the $12.11 billion in outflows Reuters reports. MassLive also mentions roughly $12 million in interest, which could explain part of the balance. We could not read the State Department PDF directly (it blocks automated downloads) to settle this; the figures here are the ones published by Reuters, AP and Al Jazeera.
- What happened after September 30. The report covers nine months and, per the press accounts, may be updated.
Why it matters
- It’s the first document with numbers. Until now there were only statements: in July, Trump said more than $13 billion had been collected, and a State Department official said $3 billion had been disbursed by April. The report shows $12.26 billion through September, below what Trump claimed two months earlier. The full timeline is in our oil money guide.
- The money props up the bolívar. If nearly all of it goes to currency auctions, the pace of crude sales directly drives the dollar supply inside Venezuela.
- Gold and minerals now flow through the legal channel, even at under 1.1% of the total. That is the number to watch if Venezuela’s new mining law draws investment. For what the country has in the ground: important minerals of Venezuela.
- For the U.S., the account is how the barrels reaching Gulf Coast refineries get paid for. Whether that means cheaper gas at the pump is a separate question, answered with data in Venezuela oil and U.S. gas prices.
Data as of November 13, 2026. This page is news, not investment advice.