“Win-win”: Venezuela talks with European oil companies, including a French one

The interim president of Venezuela met on Wednesday with the leaders of the Spanish oil companies Repsol and the French Maurel – Prom, in the wake of the reform of the hydrocarbons law, a month after the capture of Nicolas Maduro by the United States.

Delcy Rodriguez “held a meeting” with Repsol officials “in order to strengthen the country’s energy sovereignty with respect and win-win cooperation.” She also met with leaders of Maurel – Prom “with the aim of consolidating strategic alliances that strengthen the country’s energy production capacity”, according to two press releases from the public giant Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

The two companies are already present in Venezuela, a country which has the largest oil reserves on the planet, but they have seen their activities disrupted by American sanctions suspended and reinstated several times in recent years depending on the political situation.

Analysts expect a full lifting of US sanctions and the oil embargo – in force since 2019 – soon. President Donald Trump has said he wants to control the oil sector after the US intervention on January 3 that led to the capture of President Maduro.

Towards the return of Venezuela Arabia?

Washington lifted sanctions on PDVSA last week, de facto authorizing American companies to trade with the state-owned oil giant. And the adoption by the Venezuelan National Assembly of a reform of the law on hydrocarbons opened the oil sector to the private sector, completely upsetting the model inherited from ex-president Hugo Chavez (1999-2013), of socialist inspiration.

Many analysts point out that this was a requirement from the United States. “The main objective of this law is that we stop saying that we have the largest reserves in the world and start saying that we are among the main oil producers on this entire planet,” said the President of the Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, brother of the interim president.

Formerly called “Saudi Venezuela”, when it was an important player in the world market, the country produces, according to the authorities, some 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd). Years of mismanagement and corruption have caused production to drop from a peak of more than 3 million barrels per day in the early 2000s to an all-time low of 350,000 per day in 2020.