The administration of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has offered to open up Venezuela’s oil and gold projects to U.S. companies in an attempt to appease the Trump Administration and avoid conflict, the New York Times reported on Friday, quoting multiple sources close to the discussions.
Over several months, officials of the Maduro regime have negotiated with U.S. officials offers of Venezuela’s natural resources and proposed to end some deals with Iran and Russia, in an attempt to avoid increased confrontation with the United States.
Maduro has reportedly offered the Trump Administration to open all Venezuelan oil and gold projects to U.S. companies, NYT reports. The regime in Venezuela was also ready to offer preferential contracts to American firms, re-direct Venezuela’s oil exports from China to the U.S., and reduce energy and mining deals with companies from Iran, China, and Russia.
However, the proposal from Maduro was apparently rebuffed by the U.S. Administration, which was instructed by President Trump to cut off diplomatic efforts with Venezuela, another NYT report said earlier this week.
The cut-off of the diplomatic outreach effectively killed a possible deal, at least for now, according to NYT’s sources close to the discussion.
In recent weeks, the U.S. has sent warships to the Caribbean and has targeted small boats off Venezuela alleging they were transporting drugs.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury authorized this week Shell and the government of Trinidad and Tobago to work on and develop an offshore gas field in Venezuela that is planned to supply gas to Trinidad, whose maritime border with Venezuela is close to the field.
The U.S. authorization is structured in three stages, Trinidad’s attorney general John Jeremie said on Thursday. The first stage allows Shell and Trinidad to negotiate the project with Venezuela and its state oil and gas firm PDVSA. But the authorization makes the inclusion of U.S. firms in the project development mandatory.
“You have to hit commercial targets for U.S. companies. We don’t think those targets are hard to meet. They are reasonable,” Jeremie said at a press conference, as carried by Reuters.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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