Venezuela, Chevron sign contract to resume oil operations

The Venezuelan government and American oil company Chevron signed a contract in Caracas on Friday to resume operations in Venezuela, according to the country s state TV station VTV.

This contract aims to continue with the productive and development activities in this energy sector, framed within our Constitution and the Venezuelan laws that govern oil activity in the country, said Venezuelan oil minister Tareck El Aissami, who was slapped with US sanctions in 2017.

He attended the signing ceremony along with representatives from the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company PDVSA and Chevron.

El Aissami said that April 2023 will mark Chevron's 100th anniversary in Venezuela.

The move came after the United States granted Chevron limited authorization to pump oil from Venezuela last week after an announcement that the Venezuelan government and the opposition reached an agreement on humanitarian relief and will continue to negotiate for a solution to the country's chronic economic and political crisis.

The US is looking for ways to reduce the world's energy dependence on Russia and allow Venezuela to start producing more oil and selling it on the international market, according to US officials in May.

A 6 month license was granted to Venezuela by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC last week, and the US can revoke it at any time. According to a senior official, any profits earned will go to repaying debt to Chevron and not to the Maduro regime.

In 2017, OFAC said El Aissami had played a significant role in international narcotics traffickers, according to a news release.

The Treasury Department said he facilitated shipments of narcotics from Venezuela to include control of planes that leave a Venezuelan air base, and narcotics shipments of over 1,000 kilograms from Venezuela on multiple occasions, including those with the final destinations of Mexico and the United States. The department said El Aissami is associated with coordinating drug shipments to Los Zetas, a violent Mexican drug cartel, and provided protection to a Colombian drug lord.