An oil rig in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. Photo: Reuters/Isaac Urrutia.
According to a recent report made by Reuters, the US government is reviewing easing oil sanctions on Venezuela. A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council revealed that the US government is drafting a proposal that could ease sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector.
The aim of the sanctions relief would be to allow more companies and countries to import Venezuelan crude oil. However, the US government imposes a condition for the sanctions relief: that the Venezuelan government has to “conduct free and fair presidential elections.”
According to the sources consulted by Reuters, the White House is trying to “encourage negotiations between the government and the opposition.”
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“If Venezuela takes concrete steps to restore democracy, leading to free and fair elections, we are prepared to ease the corresponding sanctions,” one of the sources told Reuters.
The proposed sanctions relief would also allow European countries to buy Venezuelan crude and resume oil imports. For the sanctions relief to materialize, US President Joe Biden would have to modify measures taken by former President Donald Trump.
Venezuela has repeatedly condemned the US-imposed unilateral coercive measures on the Venezuelan oil and gas sectors, which have generated great losses to the country.
“We are among the top five countries that could receive 93% of the regional investments in exploration and production,” the president of PDVSA, Oil Minister Rafael Tellechea, commented recently, noting that this is “a potential hindered by the sanctions.”
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In June, the Boston Group of US Congresspersons pressured the Biden administration to negotiate with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and to work towards lifting the sanctions on the oil industry.
According to a report published by the Spanish mainstream news outlet ABC, the coordinator of the Boston Group, Pedro Díaz Blum, sent Biden a document with a clear proposal on Venezuela.
The four-page document proposes reactivating oil sales and channeling the revenues to an escrow account to pay for humanitarian programs in Venezuela, in a process that would be supervised by the United Nations.
(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/AU
