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<\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>US President Donald Trump has announced the cancellation of a \u201cconcession agreement\u201d on Venezuela\u2019s energy sector that allowed Chevron to pump and export oil in the sanctioned South American country.<\/p>\n<p>In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump on Wednesday said he was \u201creversing the concessions\u201d granted by Joe Biden\u2019s administration in November 2022. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are hereby reversing the concessions that Crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/venezuela\" data-trackable=\"link\">Venezuela<\/a>, on the oil transaction agreement\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. and also having to do with Electoral conditions within Venezuela which have not been met by the Maduro regime,\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The measures were an effort to coax Maduro, Venezuela\u2019s authoritarian president, into holding free and fair presidential elections.<\/p>\n<p>Though Trump did not mention <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/50947485-d526-4e6b-adb1-08bec39a2a73\" data-trackable=\"link\">Chevron<\/a> by name, it is the only company that was granted a licence to operate with Venezuela\u2019s state-owned Petr\u00f3leos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in the November 2022 concession. Other licences have been granted to Repsol, Eni, and Maurel & Prom. <\/p>\n<p>Chevron said it was considering the implications of the decision, adding that it conducted its business in Venezuela in compliance with all laws and the sanctions framework provided by the US government.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts said the loss of the Chevron licence would inflict a blow to Venezuela\u2019s oil industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe loss of diluent supplied by Chevron is a major problem \u2014 it was a lifeline for their production,\u201d said Schreiner Parker, an analyst at Rystad Energy, a consultancy.<\/p>\n<p>Diluent is a substance oil producers use to thin out the type of heavy crude produced in Venezuela and is critical to its extraction and transportation.<\/p>\n<p>Parker said the loss of diluent could cause Venezuela\u2019s oil production to fall below 500,000 barrels a day, down from just over 900,000 b\/d last year.<\/p>\n<p>Despite boasting the world\u2019s largest proven oil reserves and being a founding member of Opec, corruption, mismanagement and US-led sanctions caused the country\u2019s crude production to plummet from about 2.5mn b\/d in 2016 to 400,000 b\/d in 2020. It recovered last year, in part because of Chevron\u2019s joint venture.<\/p>\n<p>Asdr\u00fabal Oliveros, a director at Caracas-based consultancy Ecoanalitica, predicted the rescinding of Chevron\u2019s licence could cause GDP growth to shrink from 3.2 per cent to 2 per cent this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, eliminating licenses has a significant impact, not only on growth, but also on the outlook for foreign exchange flows, inflation and devaluation,\u201d Oliveros said.<\/p>\n<p>Maduro was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/b7ac47b6-992f-483f-b889-9a97c46d7247\" data-trackable=\"link\">inaugurated as president<\/a> for a third term in January despite widespread evidence of fraud in last July\u2019s election. <\/p>\n<p>His main rival in that vote, Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez, has since gone into exile while the opposition\u2019s most popular leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, who was banned from running, is in hiding.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela\u2019s vice-president Delcy Rodr\u00edguez said the decision to cancel Chevron\u2019s licence was \u201cdamaging and inexplicable\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Chevron has been lobbying hard to protect the US concessions. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Venezuela, in particular, what you have seen when countries from the west leave, you\u2019ve seen companies from China, from Russia, increase their presence as a result,\u201d chief executive Mike Wirth told the Financial Times in an interview last month.<\/p>\n<p>In late January, Trump\u2019s crisis envoy Richard Grenell travelled to Caracas, where he met Maduro and announced a deal for Venezuela to receive flights of deportees.<\/p>\n<p>More than 7mm Venezuelans have fled economic hardship and repression in the country in recent years, while the Tren de Aragua criminal organisation has expanded internationally, including in the US.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/1d4d6bbe-2526-4ed9-ad24-e53736e50e56\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for…\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}