Spanish oil company Repsol and Italy’s Eni will begin shipping Venezuelan oil to Europe as early as July, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters. This will resume the oil-for-debt swaps, which were suspended two years ago, when Washington intensified sanctions against Venezuela. The oil from Venezuela is intended to help Europe ease its dependence on Russian crude.
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, confirmed in a televised press conference that the United States had authorized Chevron, Eni and Repsol to exploit their gas and oil deposits in Venezuela. “Steps are being taken, the first steps. About a week ago, the United States took small but significant steps by granting licenses to the US company Chevron, the Italian company ENI and Repsol,” he said. But while Chevron has been allowed to resume operation in the country, it has not yet been authorized to export oil to the US. The change in position comes after the US authorized European oil companies to operate in Venezuela in a bid to promote dialogue between Maduro and Venezuelan opposition groups. The green light from Washington to resume flows of oil from Venezuela to Europe could provide a symbolic boost for Maduro. US authorities communicated the news to the companies last month, but the details and the resale restrictions had not been communicated until now. The administration of US President Joe Biden hopes that Venezuelan crude oil will help Europe reduce its dependence on Russia and redirect some of Venezuela’s cargoes from China. The volume of oil expected to be supplied by Eni and Repsol from Venezuela is not large, according to one of the sources, who said that any impact on world oil prices will be modest. Eni and Repsol did not respond to requests for comment. Repsol’s financial exposure to Venezuela at the end of 2021 amounted to €298 million. According to the Spanish company’s 2021 financial statements, this amount includes: “the US dollar financing granted to the joint ventures Cardon IV, S.A. and Petroquiriquire, S.A., amounting to €166 million and €304 million, respectively, and trade receivables from [Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA] Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. amounting to €344 million [...] less provisions for liabilities and charges amounting to €500 million.”
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Lora Smith CARACAS, August 27 -- Venezuela's National Assembly (parliament) controlled by the opposition has declared null and void a new agreement with Russia on military cooperation. The declaration was published on Monday. The document concerns "the agreement on military cooperation between the governments of Venezuela and Russia, signed by defense ministers Vladimir Padrino Lopez and Sergey Shoigu." "This agreement was not considered either by a commission on foreign policy, sovereignty and integration or by parliament, which makes it unconstitutional, and this means that it is null and void," the declaration said. The parliament said that opening a Venezuelan embassy in North Korea was "a violation of the constitution." On August 15, Shoigu and Lopez signed an agreement on reciprocal visits of military ships at the meeting in Moscow. The defense ministers also discussed the situation in Venezuela and issues of bilateral military cooperation. Lora Smith BIARRITZ, August 26 -- World leaders at the G-7 summit have agreed to help the countries affected by the huge wildfires ravaging the Amazon rain forest as soon as possible, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday. "We are all agreed on helping those countries which have been hit by the fires as fast as possible," he told journalists at the summit in the south-western French resort of Biarritz. Ahead of the gathering, Macron called on world leaders to hold urgent talks on the wildfires ripping through the world's largest rain forest, pledging "concrete measures" to tackle it. Although about 60 per cent of the Amazon is in Brazil, the vast forest also takes in parts of eight other countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. "This morning, Colombia called on the international community (to help), so we must help out," he said. "Our teams are making contact with all the Amazon countries so we can finalise some very concrete commitments involving technical resources and funding." Macron's bid to put the Amazon crisis high on the agenda at the G-7 angered Brazil's far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who lashed out over what he sees as outside interference, denouncing the French leader's "colonialist mentality". Under intense international pressure, Bolsonaro agreed to send in the military to fight the fires. The army on Sunday deployed two Hercules C-130 aircraft to douse fires, as hundreds of new blazes were ignited ahead of nationwide protests over the destruction. Heavy smoke covered the city of Porto Velho in the north-western state of Rondonia where the defense ministry said the planes have started dumping thousands of liters of water. Swathes of the remote region bordering Bolivia have been scorched by the blazes, sending thick smoke billowing into the sky and increasing air pollution across the world's largest rain forest. Experts say increased land clearing during the months-long dry season to make way for crops or grazing has aggravated the problem this year. "It gets worse every year - this year, the smoke has been really serious," Deliana Amorim, 46, told Agence France-Presse in Porto Velho where half a million people live. At least seven states, including Rondonia, have requested the army's help in the Amazon, where more than 43,000 troops are based and available to combat fires, officials said. Pope Francis on Sunday also voiced concern for the rain forest, which he described as a "vital" lung for the planet. The latest official figures show 79,513 forest fires have been recorded in Brazil this year, the highest number of any year since 2013. More than half of the fires are in the massive Amazon basin, where more than 20 million people live. Some 1,130 new fires were ignited between Friday and Saturday, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The new data come as protesters plan to take to the streets across Brazil on Sunday, after thousands held demonstrations in the country and in Europe on Friday. Lora Smith VIENNA, August 20 -- OPEC+ countries participating in the Vienna Agreement on the reduction of oil production fulfilled the terms of the agreement by 159% in July 2019, a source said after the meeting of the OPEC+ technical committee. "OPEC+ deal compliance percentage reaches 159% in July 2019," the source said. At the same time, OPEC countries complied with the agreement by 156%, and non-OPEC countries performed the agreement by 166%, the source added. Thus, in July the OPEC+ participants reduced production against October 2018 taken as the base level by 1.9 mln barrels per day, instead of early planned 1.2 mln barrels daily. In total, OPEC+ countries agreed to reduce oil production by 1.2 mln barrels per day by March 2020, including 812,000 barrels for OPEC countries and 383,000 barrels - non-OPEC countries. The main reduction quotas fall on the largest parties to the agreement - Russia and Saudi Arabia (228,000 barrels per day and 322,000 barrels per day, respectively). Lora Smith CARACAS, August 14 -- The Venezuelan National Assembly (parliament) will continue functioning under any circumstances, opposition leader Juan Guaido said on Tuesday. The Venezuelan parliament is controlled by opponents of President Nicolas Maduro. "If necessary, we will use emergency mechanisms to continue working in the parliament and fulfilling our responsibilities no matter what," El Nacional newspaper quoted Guaido as saying. Guaido added that the Venezuelan authorities are cautious about international reaction to the possible dissolution of the parliament and prefer to abstain from such step, stripping opposition parliament members of immunity instead. On Monday, Venezuela's Constituent Assembly stripped four parliament members of immunity upon the Supreme Court's request. Jose Guerra, Rafael Guzman, Tomas Guanipa and Juan Pablo Garcia Canales are accused of "treason, usurping powers, public calls for unrest, violation of laws and violence." The Constituent Assembly was established by Maduro in July 2017 without a preliminary referendum. There are no opposition representatives in the Constituent Assembly, and most Latin American countries do not recognize it as legitimate. CARACAS, June 27 -- Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has refuted accusations of trying to stage a coup voiced earlier by Minister of Communications and Information Jorge Rodriguez. "Journalists have alreadt lost count of how many times such accusations were put forward. Our call which we have made and will continue to make is directed toward the military as they need to take the side of the constitution," Guaido told AFP. Rodriguez earlier said that the Venezuelan authorities have thwarted a coup attempt. Conspirators planned to stage a coup on June 23-24 and assassinate President Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez said that Guaido knew about those plans and supported them. On January 23 Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Juan Guaido proclaimed himself as the country's acting president. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has described it as a coup attempt and announced severing diplomatic relations with the United States. On January 28 the US imposed sancitons on Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil company. Guaido was recognized as interim president by the Lima Group countries (except for Mexico), as well as by Albania, Georgia, the United States, and the Organization of American States. Several EU countries came forward with support for the Venezuelan parliament and expressed hope for new elections to resolve the crisis. Maduro was supported by Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salavador, Syria and Turkey. ST.PETERSBURG, June 7 -- Russia may increase the number of its military specialists in Venezuela if it sends such a request, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Latin American Department, Alexander Shchetinin, told reporters on Friday on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. "We have got contracts on maintenance works for what has been supplied to Venezuela. Any works demand a certain involvement of people," the diplomat said, noting: "If more [specialists] are needed, we will send them." "This is an absolutely technical issue related to implementing certain contracts on a particular volume of work," the diplomat said, noting that more specialists could arrive if needed. "Some of them will leave and the others will come." In late March, two planes with Russian servicemen arrived in Venezuela. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later said that the military specialists, who are currently in Venezuela, are repairing the equipment under an agreement on military and technical cooperation between Moscow and Caracas. CARACAS, June 5 -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said that people want to hold parliamentary election to renew the composition of the National Assembly, the country's unicameral parliament currently controlled by the opposition. "We are ready to hold parliamentary elections. The country wants the composition of the National Assembly to be renewed," Maduro said at the session of Venezuela's defense council. He also called on supporters and all people of the Bolivarian Republic to "strengthen political stability in the country." "US imperialism tries to harm Venezuela from the inside and from the outside every day," Maduro said. On January 23 Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Juan Guaido proclaimed himself as the country's acting president. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has described it as a coup attempt and announced severing diplomatic relations with the United States. On January 28 the US imposed sancitons on Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil company. Guaido was recognized as interim president by the Lima Group countries (except for Mexico), as well as by Albania, Georgia, the United States, and the Organization of American States. Several EU countries came forward with support for the Venezuelan parliament and expressed hope for new elections to resolve the crisis. Maduro was supported by Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salavador, Syria and Turkey. WASHINGTON, May 26 -- The only thing that can be negotiated with the Venezuelan government is the departure of incumbent Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the US State Department said in a statement published on Saturday. The US expressed hope that the upcoming talks between members of the Venezuelan opposition and government officials in Oslo will focus on this issue. "The United States supports the desire of the Venezuelan people to recover their democracy and bring the illegitimate Maduro regime to an end. Previous efforts to negotiate an end to the regime and free elections have failed because the regime has used them to divide the opposition and gain time," the statement says. "Free elections cannot be overseen by a tyrant. As we have repeatedly stated, we believe the only thing to negotiate with Nicolas Maduro is the conditions of his departure. We hope the talks in Oslo will focus on that objective, and if they do, we hope progress will be possible," the US State Department continued. The US also demanded to release "800 political prisoners the Maduro regime held as of May 20". "We join supporters of democracy in Venezuela throughout the world in condemning their illegal imprisonment by the Maduro regime and in demanding their immediate release," the statement concluded. Situation in Venezuela Juan Guaido Venezuelan opposition leader and speaker of the National Assembly, whose appointment to that position had been cancelled by the country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the country’s capital, Caracas, on January 23. On the same day, the United States recognized him as an interim president, and the countries of the Lima Group (excluding Mexico) and the Organization of American States followed suit. Venezuela's incumbent President Nicolas Maduro blasted the move as an attempted coup and announced cutting diplomatic ties with the United States. Most European Union member states recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president. Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria and Turkey voiced support for Maduro. On April 30, a group of military representatives expressed support for Guaido, which started a wave of massive anti-government protests in the country. Five people died and hundreds were injured in clashed with law enforcement. Non-governmental organizations reported that nearly 340 protesters were detained. CARACAS, May 24 -- The Venezuelan opposition did not hold direct talks with representatives of the President Nicolas Maduro's government in Norway, opposition leader Juan Guaido. "The regime used the word 'dialogue' to sow confusion, to win some time," Guaido told VPItv. "I have already said that we will not take part in fake dialogues," he added. The opposition leader expressed concern over "the humanitarian crisis" in Venezuela and noted that the opposition will organize the work of "committees of assistance and freedom." Venezuelan National Assembly member Stalin Gonzalez earlier said that there were no direct contacts between representatives of the government and the opposition at talks in Oslo. Gonzalez noted that Norwegians held separate meetings with representatives of the Venezuelan government and the country's opposition, and no agreements were reached at the talks. On January 23 Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Juan Guaido proclaimed himself as the country's acting president. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has described it as a coup attempt and announced severing diplomatic relations with the United States. On January 28 the US imposed sancitons on Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil company. Guaido was recognized as interim president by the Lima Group countries (except for Mexico), as well as by Albania, Georgia, the United States, and the Organization of American States. Several EU countries came forward with support for the Venezuelan parliament and expressed hope for new elections to resolve the crisis. Maduro was supported by Russia, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Turkey. Belarus and China called for resolving all issues by peaceful means and spoke against any interference from the outside. The UN secretary general called for dialogue to resolve the crisis. CARACAS, May 21 -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has proposed to the opposition controlling the country's National Assembly to hold snap parliamentary elections in order to resolve the political crisis in the Bolivarian Republic. "Today I am making a proposal to the opposition — let's try to compete in elections," Maduro said at a demonstration broadcast by Venezolana de Television. "Let's hold an early election to the National Assembly, in order to see whom the people support," he added. Snap elections would represent "a democratic, peaceful and constitutional solution" to the difficult political situation in the country, Maduro noted. Next scheduled parliamentary elections will be held in Venezuela in 2020. On January 23 Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Juan Guaido proclaimed himself as the country's acting president. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has described it as a coup attempt and announced severing diplomatic relations with the United States. On January 28 the US imposed sancitons on Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil company. Guaido was recognized as interim president by the Lima Group countries (except for Mexico), as well as by Albania, Georgia, the United States, and the Organization of American States. Several EU countries came forward with support for the Venezuelan parliament and expressed hope for new elections to resolve the crisis. Maduro was supported by Russia, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Turkey. Belarus and China called for resolving all issues by peaceful means and spoke against any interference from the outside. The UN secretary general called for dialogue to resolve the crisis. MOSCOW, May 15 -- Talks between US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Russian President Vladimir Putin demonstrate the serious approach of both Washington and Moscow to maintaining bilateral dialogue, chairman of the Valdai Discussion Club Andrey Bystritsky said Wednesday. "These meetings and Pompeo's visit to Sochi itself represent an important signal. From the political point of view, the significance of this meeting is that it actually took place. Even if they reached some practical agreements, they will try to not disclose them publicly because those agreements will gradually show in what the parties in this discussion will do in the future," Bustritsky said. "In this case, Russia and the US demonstrated that are having a serious meeting, that the US secretary of state is ready to go to Sochi and spend a lot of time there in talks. Both sides demonstrate readiness to negotiate," he added. The talks also confirmed US President Donald Trump's intention to fulfill the promises he made during the election campaign, the expert noted. "In some sense, Trump is fulfilling his plans which he talked about before becoming president - he thinks that it is better to negotiate and reach agreements with Russians, as opposed to not talking and not reaching any agreements," the expert said. Bystritsky said that one of the most important signals after Putin-Pompeo talks was the fact that the sides did not discuss the situation in Ukraine. "I would interpret this statement in the following manner: the basis formula is not being reconsidered. The Minsk Agreements remain in force. What is there to discuss? The agreements need to be implemented. Whether Ukraine is ready to fulfill them is another story," he explained. Among the topics on the international agenda discussed at the meeting, the most important issue is the situation around the Iranian nuclear deal, Bystritsky said. "Other issues, such as Venezuela and Syria, are important as well but also routine. It is clear that those are old conflicts, and it will be hard to overcome them completely. It is not clear how to resolve these problems," he concluded. CARACAS, May 7 -- The Venezuelan authorities are investigating the deaths of five people in anti-government demonstrations on April 30, Prosecutor General Tarek Willian Saab said on Tuesday. "A total of 233 people were detained, five people died. All these cases are being investigated by the prosecutor's office," Saab told Venevision TV channel. The prosecutor's office has already requested orders for arresting 18 "military and civilians who conspired" to overthrow the government, he said adding that 17 searches have been carried out as well. On April 30 a military group sided with the Venezuelan opposition, which led to massive anti-government protests in the country. Dozens of people were injured in clashes with security forces. CARACAS, May 6 -- The current situation in Venezuela reflects a new round of struggle for control over that country’s resources and wealth, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told reporters at a news conference in Moscow on Monday. "We are witnessing the historic struggle for control over our country’s wealth, control over incomes from the oil industry, for potential incomes from natural resources and energy resources, which Venezuela has," he stressed, commenting on US-backed pressure exerted on his country. Venezuela’s top diplomat noted that "the Venezuelan people came to power as a result of the Bolivarian Revolution (a social and political movement founded after Hugo Chavez was elected the President of Venezuela). "What we have seen over the past twenty years are various chapters of the fight for control over Venezuela’s oil potential," he stressed. RIO DE JANEIRO, May 3 -- Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido considers foreign military intervention as a measure of last resort to overthrow the government of President Nicolas Maduro. "I do not rule our a military intervention because it is entirely clear what the Maduro regime is about," Guaido told Folha de Sao Paolo newspaper. "But this is a measure of last resort. It is important to first try to faciliate a peaceful transition," he added. On January 23 Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Juan Guaido proclaimed himself as the country's acting president. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has described it as a coup attempt and announced severing diplomatic relations with the United States. On January 28 the US imposed sanctions on Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil company. Guaido was recognized as interim president by the Lima Group countries (except for Mexico), as well as by Albania, Georgia, the United States, and the Organization of American States. Several EU countries came forward with support for the Venezuelan parliament and expressed hope for new elections to resolve the crisis. Maduro was supported by Russia, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Turkey. Belarus and China called for resolving all issues by peaceful means and spoke against any interference from the outside. The UN secretary general called for dialogue to resolve the crisis. |
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