An Ecopetrol refinery in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, on February 15, 2022. Photo: Ivan Valencia/Bloomberg/File photo.
The Colombian government and Ecopetrol have resumed negotiations with the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to obtain a license to purchase natural gas from Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA).
The proceedings are being carried out by the Colombian Minister for Mines and Energy Andrés Camacho and the president of the Colombian oil company, Ricardo Roa Barragán, together with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
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“I come with all the energy to lead this sector that is so important for the country with the aim of building bridges for the joint construction of an energy policy for the benefit of all citizens and Colombian regions,” said Frank Pearl in his first statement as executive president of the Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP).
US illegal sanctions do not allow PDVSA to establish commercial relations with other companies or governments, so any negotiation, in that sense, must pass through OFAC’s inspection, as has already happened with other licenses related to the production and trading of Venezuelan hydrocarbons.
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This imperialist policy, that violates the most basic principles of international law and free trade, resembles, for many, the colonial trade monopoly that the Spanish, British, or French Crowns applied on their colonies between the 18th and the 19th century.
A similar “concession” requested by the government of Trinidad and Tobago to the imperialist powers in Washington facilitated the recent signing of a joint operation agreement between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela to exploit the Dragon offshore natural gas field.
(Misión Verdad) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
