A Venezuelan oil worker operates a drill. Photo: PDVSA.
By Misión Verdad – May 8, 2025
Despite diplomatic tensions and attempts at political interference from Madrid, energy ties between Venezuela and Spain have been maintained.
In March 2025, Spain increased its crude imports by 8%, reaching 5.31 million tons, according to data from the Strategic Petroleum Products Reserves Corporation (CORES). Of that total, 296,000 tons (5.6%) came from Venezuela, a flow that contradicts Madrid’s rhetoric of diplomatic pressure following the decision to grant asylum to Edmundo González Urrutia, and demonstrates an interdependence that cannot be ignored.
This takes on particular symbolic and geopolitical weight when viewed in perspective with messages issued by the Venezuelan National Assembly in late 2024. At that time, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, urged the government to break diplomatic, consular, and commercial relations with Spain, calling Spain’s interference unacceptable after the Spanish Congress recognized Edmundo González Urrutia as the “president-elect” of Venezuela. “Patience has its limits,” Rodríguez expressed then, invoking national sovereignty and denouncing the peninsular institution’s support for the regime change agenda.
At that time, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, without formally recognizing González Urrutia as the supposed “president elect,” met with him in the Moncloa Palace. During this meeting he said that his government would work “in favor of democracy, dialogue and the fundamental rights of the people of Venezuela.”
The Spanish Parliament’s maneuver sought to force the Spanish government to formally suspend relations with Venezuela—which implied breaking the energy link—something that would have represented an endorsement for the extremist opposition of Venezuela. It did not happen. Information shows that Venezuela has strengthened its position in the energy sector, while the government of Sánchez, in a scenario of lower supply from other markets, with its main suppliers Brazil, Mexico and the United States having reduced their supplies with respect to March 2024, has moderated its rhetoric and attenuated its pressure on Caracas.
Rupture as defense: National Assembly applies principle of reciprocity
The clash escalated in September 2024, when Edmundo González arrived in Madrid. A few days later, on September 10, the Spanish Congress debated and approved a proposal promoted by the right-wing Popular Party (PP), which urged the Spanish government to recognize González and to impose sanctions against the Venezuelan government. The document, symbolic in nature but politically significant, was approved with 177 votes in favor, 164 against, and one abstention.
This gesture was in addition to the political asylum granted by Spain to the former candidate of the Unitary Platform. However, the Spanish government never made such recognition official at the executive level, aligning itself with the position of the European Union: questioning the Venezuelan electoral process without supporting a new experiment of “parallel government,”given the failed previous attempt with Juan Guaidó.
Tensions worsened when, in the same month, Venezuela reported the dismantling of a terrorist plan involving six foreigners, two of them Spanish citizens, agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) of Spain, accused of recruiting mercenaries to carry out targeted assassinations of high-ranking Venezuelan State officials.
Between the hostile political statements and attacks on national security, the Venezuelan National Assembly chose to raise its tone and formally proposed the severance of bilateral relations as a means to protect national sovereignty. The measure ultimately did not materialize because Madrid had understood the message well enough and considered the negative effects of rupturing diplomatic relations.
Repsol sticks to its operations in Venezuela
Spanish imports of Venezuelan crude experienced an unprecedented boom in 2024. In December 2024, an increase of 116.1% over the previous year was reported, reaching more than three million tons. This represented, at that time, 4.7% of the total crude imported by Spain, according to CORES data. Thus Spain became the third largest buyer of Venezuelan oil, behind only China and India.
This rise is not fortuitous. Since Europe made the decision to compromise its oil supply by reducing consumption from one of its main suppliers, Russia, countries such as Spain have been forced to rapidly diversify their energy sources. In this scenario, Venezuela has been turning into an influential player for its energy security.
The Spanish energy company Repsol, in collaboration with the Italian Eni, has broadened its operations in Venezuela through the strategic Perla Field, considered the largest natural gas field in Latin America. This project, operated by the Cardón IV joint venture of the Venezuelan national company PDVSA, achieved an initial production of 150 million cubic feet, a figure that positions it as a key asset for European energy supply. However, its development was interrupted by US sanctions.
Conditions changed in 2023 when Repsol obtained an authorization from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Perla. This progress continued in April 2024 with the renewal of General License 44A by OFAC, which allowed the expansion of operations through the joint venture Petroquiriquire. This expansion includes the development of the Tomoporo and La Ceiba fields, which contribute an additional 20,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
In March of this year a new obstacle arose: US President Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on all countries that buy Venezuelan oil, a maneuver that directly affects companies such as Repsol, which have agreements in force with PDVSA. Spanish media described this decision as an “open economic aggression” by the United States against its European allies that are already facing a complex scenario after the sanctions against Russia.
Spanish Minister Pilar Alegría expressed the Sánchez government’s response to Trump’s measure: “If these tariffs directly affect the productive sectors of our country and Spanish and European products, as has already happened in the case of steel and aluminum, Europe and Spain will launch a forceful response in defense of Spanish products and producers.”
Recently, Repsol’s CEO Josu Jon Imaz expressed confidence in maintaining production in Venezuela: “We have a direct and open dialogue with the US authorities, and we work together with them with the aim of maintaining our assets and operations in Venezuela in the future. So we are saying, we have that channel open and I prefer to continue working in that frank and direct relationship with the US government.”
Spain’s turnaround in the face of unfavorable conditions
Spain’s willingness to join the US pressure campaign against the government of Nicolás Maduro ended up in a quicker-than-expected turnaround. Instead of prolonging the confrontation, Madrid has opted to reduce tensions by displacing extremist opposition figures from the center of the agenda and focusing its efforts on safeguarding its energy link with Caracas.
The González Urrutia affair has gradually dissolved from Spanish public discourse, coinciding with a steady rise in Venezuelan crude imports. Meanwhile, Repsol continues to strengthen its foothold in Venezuela’s hydrocarbon landscape, navigating a complex regulatory environment characterized by intensified illegal sanctions and newly imposed tariff obstacles.
In this standoff, pragmatic energy interests have ultimately outweighed political rhetoric, effectively neutralizing Madrid’s attempts at interference beneath the strategic leverage of petroleum resources. With measured confidence rather than bombast, the Venezuelan state has cemented its position as an indispensable provider for European energy security, successfully transcending coordinated efforts to marginalize it on the international stage.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
Misión Verdad
Misión Verdad is a Venezuelan investigative journalism website with a socialist perspective in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution
