Did Venezuela have an agreement with China to sell oil in a basket of BRICS currencies?

1. The bilateral oil relationship that underpins the question

China and Venezuela built a close oil-for-finance relationship over decades in which Beijing extended loans and its companies gained oil entitlements, and Chinese refiners and traders have been major buyers of discounted Venezuelan crude and suppliers of financing repaid in oil, according to Reuters and The New York Times reporting on that commercial and financial link. ^{[2] [4]}

2. Evidence that Venezuela has used the yuan in oil trade and rhetoric

Multiple outlets report that Venezuelan officials have priced or declared intent to price oil in yuan on several occasions — for example, Caracas moved to price oil in Chinese currency at least rhetorically in 2017 and has been described as selling oil to China settled in yuan and repaying some Chinese loans with crude rather than dollars. ^{[1] [2] [4]}

3. What mainstream reporting does not show: no clear BRICS‑basket pricing pact

None of the mainstream news reporting assembled documents an explicit agreement between Venezuela and China to sell Venezuelan oil in a “basket of BRICS currencies” (a multi‑currency pricing formula that would systematically use multiple BRICS monies); Reuters, BBC, The New York Times, CNA and other wire and legacy outlets describe yuan pricing or oil‑for‑loans arrangements but stop short of citing a formal Caracas‑Beijing pact to adopt a BRICS basket as the contractual settlement mechanism. ^{[3] [5] [4] [1]}

4. Why some commentators assert a BRICS or de‑dollarisation narrative

Analysts and opinion pieces tie Venezuela’s China links, its 303 billion barrels of reserves, and its BRICS outreach to broader de‑dollarisation anxieties — framing yuan pricing and BRICS cooperation as part of a potential erosion of dollar dominance — but these are analytical inferences or advocacy arguments rather than primary evidence of a specific multi‑currency sales agreement between Caracas and Beijing. ^{[6] [7]}

5. Alternative interpretations and hidden agendas in the coverage

Official and commercial complexity explains divergent claims: some outlets emphasize China’s role and yuan settlements to argue a structural tilt away from the dollar, while others emphasize debt‑repayment in kind, sanctions‑driven trade workarounds, and tactical pricing choices; party‑aligned or speculative pieces (including some Substack and commodity‑alarm sources) may inflate the conclusion of an organized BRICS‑basket oil contract because that narrative supports wider geopolitical theses about the petrodollar and regime change. ^{[7] [8] [6]}

6. Bottom line and limits of available reporting

The balanced reading of available reporting is straightforward: there is credible evidence Venezuela sold large volumes of oil to China and used the yuan in many transactions and public statements, but there is no confirmed public record in the assembled mainstream reporting of a formal, binding Caracas‑Beijing agreement to price Venezuelan oil in a BRICS currency basket — this remains asserted in some commentary but not documented in the sources reviewed. If such a multilateral basket deal exists, it has not been transparently reported in the outlets cited here. ^{[2] [1] [3] [4]}