The South American nation’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, recently enacted legislation to invite foreign investment in Venezuela’s energy sector
US President Donald Trump has stated that American oil companies are heading to Venezuela due to the South American country’s recent push to encourage foreign investment in its energy sector.
In early January, US commandos carried out a raid in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, detaining President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. The couple was flown to New York to face trial on drug trafficking charges, to which both have pleaded not guilty. Trump has since demanded “total access” to Venezuela’s oil.
During a cabinet meeting on Thursday, the US president noted that his administration was “getting along really well” with Venezuelan Interim President Delcy Rodriguez and the country’s leadership.
“We’re working… on the oil. We have the major oil companies heading to Venezuela now, scouting the area and selecting their sites,” Trump stated.
Trump’s remarks aligned with the issuance of a general license by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which authorized companies under specific conditions to engage in the “lifting, exportation, re-exportation, sale, resale, supply, storage, marketing, purchase, delivery, or transportation of Venezuelan origin oil, including the refining of such oil”.
Also on Thursday, Rodriguez signed the reform to the Organic Hydrocarbons Law with the aim of incentivizing private and foreign investment in the country’s deteriorating energy sector. Earlier that day, Rodriguez held a telephone conversation with Trump.
Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves at around 303 billion barrels, nationalized US companies’ assets in the 2000s during the presidency of socialist Hugo Chavez. Washington responded by imposing severe sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry.
The US president has recently urged US energy companies to invest in reviving the sector. However, Exxon CEO Darren Woods has downplayed the idea, stating that the South American country is “uninvestable” given the current “commercial constructs and frameworks in place” there. He added that “durable investment protections” are a prerequisite for any long-term involvement.
Russia, along with many other BRICS and Global South nations, has strongly condemned the abduction of the Venezuelan president by US forces.
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia has described Washington’s actions as “international banditry” driven by a desire to gain “unlimited control over natural resources.”