Venezuela’s heavy crude isn’t a great fit for the US emergency reserve. It could still help refill it.

The US could swap heavy Venezuelan crude for American oil to help refill the US emergency reserve, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday. “We’ll swap you a barrel of heavy crude for a barrel of light or medium United States crude,” Wright told CNBC in Caracas.

The swap could get around a mismatch, as some of Venezuela’s key heavy crude grades aren’t suitable for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Wright’s comments came after President Donald Trump said Sunday that he planned to “fill up” the US strategic reserves with Venezuelan oil.

The White House has also said oil secured through a sweeping new US-Venezuela agreement could help replenish the SPR. “It doesn’t mean that exactly these barrels go in there,” Wright said.

Venezuela’s heavy crude could instead go to US refiners, while lighter American barrels obtained through a swap could enter the reserve.

Wright said US refineries built in the 1960s and 1970s were designed around Venezuelan crude.

Under the new agreement, North American Blue Energy Partners received 100-year concessions covering 17 Venezuelan oil fields.

The US government received a 35% equity stake in the company’s corporate parent.

The State Department gained the right to buy 20% of the oil from NABEP-operated fields at the cost of production.

More Venezuelan heavy crude could also increase competition for Canada, a major supplier of heavy oil to US refineries. “Well, of course.

All crude is competition with all other crude,” Wright said when asked whether Venezuelan production would compete with Canadian and other North American oil.

Wright said increased competition would push prices lower, which he expects to boost consumption. “If you have lower oil prices, you have faster demand growth,” he said.