The US are concerned that the sale of Petro is being carried out in order to raise funds that will circumvent financial sanctions that have been imposed on the controversial state. Others have labelled the ICO a pre-sale of oil, which will cause issues in the near future. This is primarily because some of the oil that is being used as backing for the ICO is yet to be mined: Controversial Venezuelan Pre-Sale For Petro Goes Ahead
While the country has the largest oil reserves in the world, 100 million barrels would represent around 12% of its annual production. Committing this amount of their main economic asset is not only unlikely, but also extremely risky for the already wrecked Venezuelan Economy.