The United States has completed its first sale of Venezuelan oil, worth $500 million, an administration official said.
Additional oil sales are expected to follow in the coming days and weeks, the same official added, CNN reports.
In the days after the United States launched an attack on Venezuela earlier this month and captured its President Nicolas Maduro, President Donald Trump made it clear that he planned to exploit the country's vast oil reserves.
Trump said on Friday that the oil industry would invest at least $100 billion in rebuilding Venezuela's badly damaged energy sector - although it was not clear what he based his estimate on, according to CNN.
The administration's plans to profit from Venezuelan oil were met with skepticism, however, among leaders of US energy companies during a meeting at the White House.
"It's unsustainable," ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said, addressing officials as he discussed the obstacles to doing business in Venezuela.
"There are a number of legal and commercial frameworks that would need to be in place for us to even understand what kind of return on investment would be possible."
Several other executives have also expressed their displeasure at doing business in the politically and economically unstable Latin American country. After a multi-hour meeting at the White House on Friday, Trump and his closest aides emerged without any significant commitments from companies to invest billions of dollars in the country.
Details of the first oil sale were not clear, but White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement that "President Trump's team is facilitating positive and ongoing discussions with oil companies that are ready and willing to make unprecedented investments in rebuilding Venezuela's oil infrastructure."
On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Venezuelan crude oil is being offered to traders at a discount to competing oil from other countries, such as Canada.
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