{"id":40658,"date":"2026-01-30T00:07:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=40658"},"modified":"2026-01-30T00:07:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:07:03","slug":"us-moves-to-open-venezuelas-vast-crude-reserves-to-big-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=40658","title":{"rendered":"US moves to open Venezuela\u2019s vast crude reserves\u00a0to Big Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=71faf4c0-6d76-47ca-a72e-59f0bf95aecf&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The US has taken a decisive step to open Venezuela\u2019s energy sector to Big Oil, weeks after President Donald Trump ordered special forces to seize Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and said American companies would control its vast crude reserves.<\/p>\n<p>The US Treasury department on Thursday eased legal restrictions that had prevented American oil companies doing business in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/venezuela\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">Venezuela<\/a>, a crucial step in opening the country\u2019s upstream sector to investors.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cgeneral licence\u201d issued by Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control will allow American groups to purchase and resell Venezuelan oil and authorises many transactions that had been prohibited by US sanctions, including doing business with state-owned oil company PDVSA.<\/p>\n<p>The licence was announced shortly after Venezuelan lawmakers approved a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/e78a8e53-3997-47a2-8812-261a19e14d6a\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">sweeping reform<\/a> of the country\u2019s hydrocarbons law on Thursday. <\/p>\n<p>The legislation, which was swiftly signed into law by Venezuela\u2019s acting president Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, grants private companies control over the production and sale of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/oil\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">oil<\/a> and allows disputes to be settled by independent arbitrators.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis law lets us make a real historic leap, turning those oil reserves, the largest in the world, into real prosperity,\u201d said Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela has the world\u2019s largest proven oil reserves, estimated at about 300bn barrels. It pumped roughly 3mn barrels a day at the turn of the century. <\/p>\n<p>Years of corruption and mismanagement led production to collapse to about 500,000 b\/d in 2020, with sweeping US sanctions on the sector imposed during Trump\u2019s first administration also crimping output.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Production last year rose to roughly 950,000 b\/d, largely buoyed by Chevron, whose sanctions-exemption licence makes it the only US oil major currently operating in Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p>Sanctions experts said the general licence announced on Thursday appeared to exclusively benefit American oil companies as opposed to other foreign groups operating in the country. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an extraordinary licence because on its face it only benefits US oil companies,\u201d said Jeremy Paner, a partner at law firm Hughes, Hubbard &amp; Reed. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt provides no protection for the non-US players in Venezuela, who remain locked out of the US dollar and oilfield service providers for their Venezuelan operations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oil traders Vitol and Trafigura have already signed deals with the US government and obtained separate licences to enable them to begin loading and exporting Venezuelan oil.<\/p>\n<p>But despite the president\u2019s desire for swift investment by US oil giants, some companies have said they will need strong <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/84e05c24-ca30-416d-9f7e-1798a28f29c3\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">financial, legal and security guarantees<\/a> before they commit the billions of dollars needed to reboot the country\u2019s ailing energy infrastructure. <\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"27387730-f26d-4e0b-a8d2-62e4f12d1821\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/27387730-f26d-4e0b-a8d2-62e4f12d1821\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" data-trackable-context-story-link=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2493\/1402\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Darren Woods, the chief executive of ExxonMobil, the biggest US oil producer, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/4c21c031-443e-4834-a7a6-3dd59672b54e\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">warned<\/a> earlier this month that Venezuela remained \u201cuninvestable\u201d without \u201csignificant changes\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Under Maduro\u2019s populist predecessor Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, who ruled from 1999 until his death from cancer in 2013, Venezuela expropriated assets belonging to US oil companies, including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, while installing political and military allies at PDVSA.<\/p>\n<p>Orlando Camacho, a lawmaker from the pro-government bloc who presented the legislation, said on Thursday that the new law would \u201cchange the country\u2019s economy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>When the bill was first discussed by the National Assembly last week, one government-aligned lawmaker told the FT \u201cthere are many things that were ordered by the gringos\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009that law comes from the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/71faf4c0-6d76-47ca-a72e-59f0bf95aecf\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":40659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40658","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\/40658","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}