United States\u00a0Energy\u00a0Secretary\u00a0Chris Wright said on Tuesday after landing in\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0that deals that\u00a0oil\u00a0companies from the US and other countries sign tomorrow in Caracas will lead to a\u00a0more\u00a0than\u00a0doubling of crude production in the\u00a0next\u00a0few\u00a0years.<\/p>\n
Wright is on a one-day trip to the founding OPEC member, his second since US forces\u00a0seized\u00a0Venezuela’s leader\u00a0Nicolas Maduro in January.<\/p>\n
Venezuelan\u00a0oil\u00a0production peaked above 3 million barrels per day in the late 1990s but plummeted after that on a lack of investment, mismanagement and US\u00a0sanctions. In recent months it has been around 1.1 million to 1.2 million bpd, rising slightly since Maduro was captured.<\/p>\n
Wright said\u00a0US\u00a0gasoline prices\u00a0should fall in coming weeks due to steps the Trump administration has taken to ease regulations on refiners.<\/p>\n
“The investment in these deals will massively grow available\u00a0oil\u00a0production, which will give downward pressure on\u00a0oil\u00a0prices, but the biggest kink right now in gasoline and diesel prices is refining capacity,” Wright, who traveled with officials from the US\u00a0Departments of Treasury and State, told reporters after landing.<\/p>\n
Chevron, the largest American\u00a0oil\u00a0producer in\u00a0Venezuela, along with Italy’s Eni, India’s ONGC, Colombia’s GeoPark and the US’ GE Vernova are on track to sign agreements on\u00a0energy\u00a0projects in the country this week.<\/p>\n
Read:\u00a0Venezuela, Israel reestablish relations<\/p>\n
Wright’s meetings in\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0come days after President Donald Trump\u00a0unveiled a separate deal\u00a0for the US to\u00a0gain long-term access\u00a0to a fifth of\u00a0Venezuela’s proven\u00a0oil\u00a0reserves, which are among the largest in the world.<\/p>\n
Private, US-backed\u00a0oil\u00a0firm North American Blue\u00a0Energy\u00a0Partners, or NABEP, would receive a 100-year lease for 17 oilfields in Venezuela, holding some 65 billion barrels of\u00a0oil\u00a0reserves, under the arrangement.<\/p>\n
The deal with NABEP, controlled by\u00a0Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt, was arranged by Washington and Caracas without a competitive process.<\/p>\n
That and the fact that Betancourt has been investigated by US and European authorities, but never charged over past \u2060dealings in\u00a0Venezuela, have raised flags\u00a0among some\u00a0oil\u00a0companies weighing investments in the country,\u00a0Reuters\u00a0reported on Monday. He has \u200bpreviously denied allegations against him. NABEP said Betancourt has been in the\u00a0Venezuelan\u00a0oil\u00a0industry for\u00a0more\u00a0than\u00a015\u00a0years\u00a0with a track record of success.<\/p>\n
Oilfields formerly led by Russia, China<\/p>\n
Betancourt is “not a bad actor,” said a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak publicly, on the plane to Caracas.<\/p>\n
The official added that many of the\u00a0oilfields in the deal with NABEP were until recently\u00a0controlled by China and Russia. The official\u00a0also said that\u00a0Betancourt brought\u00a0oil\u00a0rigs to\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0from Texas, which will provide jobs in the US and in\u00a0Venezuela.<\/p>\n
The US official downplayed the idea that China would be upset by Washington’s moving in on\u00a0Venezuela’s resources. “Obviously we maintain a very robust bilateral relationship with China and I don’t think that…this is anything they weren’t expecting,” the US official said.<\/p>\n
Read More:\u00a0US-backed Venezuela talks to begin without opposition leader Machado<\/p>\n
Asked about the US-backed company taking over the fields at a regular press conference on Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said its cooperation with\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0was protected by international law and its interests in the country must be guaranteed.<\/p>\n
Wright said 17 million barrels of\u00a0oil\u00a0transited\u00a0the Strait of Hormuz\u00a0on Monday, adding that it marked the highest level of crude\u00a0oil\u00a0to pass through the waterway since the\u00a0US-Israeli war on Iran\u00a0had reduced flows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United States\u00a0Energy\u00a0Secretary\u00a0Chris Wright said on Tuesday after landing in\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0that deals that\u00a0oil\u00a0companies from the US and other countries sign tomorrow in Caracas will lead to a\u00a0more\u00a0than\u00a0doubling of crude production in the\u00a0next\u00a0few\u00a0years. Wright is on a one-day trip to the founding OPEC member, his second since US forces\u00a0seized\u00a0Venezuela’s leader\u00a0Nicolas Maduro in January. Venezuelan\u00a0oil\u00a0production peaked above 3 million …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5621,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5617\/revisions\/5621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}