More than 500,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan crude — roughly half the country's total output of 1.25 million barrels per day — are now flowing to refineries along the United States Gulf Coast, a senior US energy official said at an industry event in Houston on Tuesday. Under Secretary of Energy Kyle Haustveit described the arrangement as "a beautiful energy partnership," noting that the US is also sending over 100,000 barrels per day of naphtha to Venezuela for blending with its heavy crude. The disclosure raises fresh scrutiny over the financial terms of the deal: the Financial Times reported the US has collected more than $13 billion in revenue from Venezuelan oil sales this year, yet the Trump administration has offered little public accounting of how those funds are being used, prompting concern from analysts that Washington risks "entrenching a corrupt successor regime" in Caracas rather than advancing a democratic transition.