▲ Venezuelan oil field
The Venezuelan parliament has approved a major oil agreement signed between the government of Delcy Rodriguez and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
According to foreign media reports, including Reuters, the ruling-party-dominated parliament passed the bilateral oil agreement in a vote on the 1st (local time), the core of which grants the United States access rights to one-fifth of Venezuela's oil reserves.
Under this agreement, North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), Venezuela's second-largest private oil company, will receive a 100-year lease on 17 oil fields.
These oil fields hold an estimated 65 billion barrels, surpassing the total U.S. proven reserves of 46 billion barrels.
The U.S. government (the Department of Defense's Office of Strategic Capital) has acquired a 35 percent stake in NABEP while securing the right to receive 20 percent of the extracted oil at production cost for massive supply to domestic refineries.
EFE reported that this marks the first time the Office of Strategic Capital, launched in 2022, has directly held equity in a foreign private company.
Notably, the acquisition targets include oil fields where Chinese and Russian companies previously held influence, raising expectations of backlash from China and Russia.
Regarding this, a U.S. official told Reuters, "Bilateral relations with China are very solid, and China likely could not have failed to anticipate this."
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated immediately upon arriving in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on the 2nd that the agreement will more than double Venezuela's oil production within a few years, according to Reuters.
Venezuela's oil production peaked at an average of 3 million barrels per day in the late 1990s, but subsequently plummeted due to underinvestment, mismanagement, and U.S. sanctions, hovering between 1.1 million and 1.2 million barrels per day in recent months.
Secretary Wright noted, "If investment from this contract substantially boosts oil production, oil prices will face downward pressure," adding, "(Even if oil prices drop) the biggest obstacle to curbing current hikes in gasoline and diesel prices is refining capacity."
During this visit, Secretary Wright will finalize the bilateral oil agreement and sign pacts with private entities.
Major U.S. oil company Chevron, Italy's Eni, India's ONGC, Colombia's GeoPark, and America's GE Vernova are also scheduled to sign contracts regarding energy projects in Venezuela this week.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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