According to the Wall Street Journal reported on November 26, local time, the US government will allow the domestic multinational energy giant Chevron to resume oil extraction from Venezuelan oil fields. Earlier, the Maduro government of Venezuela and the domestic opposition signed a phased peace agreement.
Under the mediation of Norway and after the signing of the agreement in Mexico City, the Mexican capital, the Biden administration issued Chevron a license to allow the California-based oil company to return to its Venezuelan oil fields through a joint venture with Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA, which means that this new license issued by the US Treasury Department allows Chevron to drill for oil in Venezuela for the first time in many years.
Screenshot of the Wall Street Journal report
Biden administration officials reportedly said the license, in content, prohibits Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA company from making profits from Chevron's oil sales. The officials said the U.S. stands ready to revoke or modify licenses valid for six months if Venezuela does not negotiate in good faith.
Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, claimed: "If Maduro again tries to use these negotiations to buy time to further consolidate his 'criminal rule,' the United States and our international partners must fully restore sanctions." ”
Venezuela's oil production is about 700,000 barrels per day, compared to more than 3 million barrels per day in the 90s. Some analysts expect Venezuela to reach 1 million barrels per day in the medium term, but the increase is modest, reflecting the decay of the country's state-dominated oil industry.
Now, the shift in U.S. policy could signal the prospect of other oil companies resuming operations in Venezuela, but the Treasury Department did not say whether and how non-U.S. companies could re-engage with Venezuela. Two years ago, in an effort to put more pressure on Maduro's government, the then-Trump administration completely shut down Chevron and other companies' oil operations in Venezuela.
Oil extraction site of Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA
Some Republicans fiercely criticized Biden for the decision to return Chevron to Venezuela to extract oil. Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York tweeted: "The Biden administration should allow U.S. energy producers to release domestic production instead of begging Maduro for oil." ”
Officials in the Biden administration said the decision to issue the license was not a response to current oil prices. Oil prices have been a major concern for Biden and his senior staff in recent months as they seek to address inflation. One of the officials said: "This is a necessary step taken by the government to support the 'restoration of democracy' in Venezuela." ”
The Wall Street Journal mentioned that in October last year, the newspaper reported that the Biden administration was preparing to reduce sanctions against the Venezuelan government to allow Chevron to resume oil drilling in Venezuela. Under the new license, the proceeds from oil sales will be used to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in debt PDVSA owes to Chevron, and the administration will require Chevron to report details of its financial operations to ensure transparency, administration officials said.
In fact, the United States has shown for some time that it wants to deal directly with Maduro's government. With the rise of the Biden administration and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the international situation in Venezuela has improved significantly.
In January, the foreign ministers of EU member states issued a joint statement saying that the EU no longer recognizes Guaido as Venezuela's "interim president" but sees him as a "special interlocutor" in Venezuela's political process; In May, the U.S. government announced the easing of some sanctions on Venezuelan oil exports and released some olive branches to Maduro.
According to earlier reports, on November 26, local time, the Venezuelan government and representatives of the country's opposition signed a peace agreement in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico. This is the resumption of negotiations after the suspension of political dialogue between the two sides for nearly a year, and an important milestone in the settlement of domestic political disputes.
On November 26, local time, Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, the Venezuelan government signed a peace agreement with representatives of the country's opposition. The picture is from The Paper
Rodriguez, head of the Venezuelan government delegation and president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, told the media after the signing of the agreement that an important content of the agreement is that the negotiating parties agreed to transfer about $3 billion of overseas funds "frozen" by Western countries back to Venezuela and use these funds to support domestic construction.
According to the agreement, the Venezuelan government will set up a special committee with the opposition to jointly handle the operation of the relevant funds, with staff from the United Nations and the Norwegian government, which assisted in the negotiations, to participate in coordination and monitoring. In addition, Rodriguez stressed that the negotiating parties also reached a consensus on matters such as continuing to promote domestic electoral activities and maintaining constitutional order.
The Venezuelan government has long been subject to continuous sanctions by Western countries, and according to Venezuelan government statistics, up to now, in terms of financial sanctions alone, Western countries have frozen tens of billions of dollars of Venezuelan overseas funds in "illegal ways".
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