Venezuela to sign new oil production contracts with Chevron: Minister

The Venezuelan government will sign new deals on joint business and oil production with the US oil corporation Chevron in the coming hours, Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami said on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, El Aissami held negotiations with Javier La Rosa, the president of Chevron’s operations in Venezuela, after which he wrote on Twitter: "I had a successful working meeting with La Rosa; this oil company will celebrate 100 years of operation in Venezuela in 2023. In the next few hours, we will sign contracts to promote the development of joint ventures and oil production, as always – under the terms set out in the Constitution and other Venezuelan laws."

The United States was willing to provide targeted sanctions relief to Venezuela in order to encourage negotiations between the Venezuelan government and the opposition, a US senior official claimed last week. Chevron became the first US oil company to be authorized by the US government to extract oil in Venezuela.

A senior US official pointed out that under the new US license, Chevron will still be required to provide the US government with significant reports of its financial operations of joint ventures in Venezuela in order to ensure full transparency.

Nevertheless, the official clarified that "Venezuela-related sanctions and restrictions imposed by the United States still remain in place and should not be interpreted as a permissive environment on sanctions."

In 2019, the US imposed a list of sanctions against Venezuela and blocked $7 billion worth of assets of the Venezuelan state-run oil and gas company PDVSA in US jurisdiction. A year later, Venezuela filed a complaint against the US restrictions on the country with the Hague Tribunal.

In late June, a US government delegation headed to Caracas to continue talks that began on March 5 after the break in diplomatic relations in 2019.

It is worth noting that in October, The New York Times reported that the Biden administration was contemplating removing certain sanctions on Caracas's oil exports as migration and energy crises deepen.

According to NYT, certain individuals within Biden's administration are pushing for the restoration of diplomatic and economic ties with Caracas so that the migrant crisis may be contained, as well as the energy crisis dealt with.

It added that the relief of sanctions particularly targets the Venezuelan petroleum sector and that it would only happen if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro decides to restore "democracy" in his country and resume talks with the opposition.