Venezuela’s Rodriguez proposes oil reform to ease investment
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Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez said she was submitting a proposal to reform the country's hydrocarbon law.
PHOTO: REUTERS
CARACAS – Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez said on Jan 15 she was submitting a proposal to reform the country’s hydrocarbon law, as investors in the US push for easier access to the South American country’s oil industry.
Ms Rodriguez said the reforms would “allow these investment flows to be incorporated into new fields, fields where no investment has ever been made and into fields where there is no infrastructure”.
Ms Rodriguez said funds from oil would go to workers and public services.
The US says around US$500 million (S$643 million) has already been generated from oil sales under a deal with Caracas and this is being held in US-controlled bank accounts. An industry source familiar with the plan said the main account was located in Qatar.
As the Trump administration sets its sights on Venezuela’s vast but underproductive oil reserves by implementing a US$100 billion reconstruction plan, potential investors have called for urgent legal reform in the OPEC member nation.
Venezuela’s hydrocarbon law has until now stipulated that foreign partners must work together with state firm PDVSA, which must hold the majority stake. Ms Rodriguez did not say how the law would be reformed.
Sixth tanker seized
Ms Rodriguez, who was sworn in ten days ago after the US ouster of her predecessor
She took over the presidency on an interim basis after the US military captured President Nicolas Maduro and flew him to the US to stand trial on drug charges, which he denies.
Ms Rodriguez also called for diplomacy with the US, marking a shift in historically tense rhetoric between the two countries, and said should she need to travel to Washington, she would do so “walking on her feet, not dragged there”.
Ms Rodriguez said she had a plan for 2026 and would “forge a new politics in Venezuela”. She also praised many long-standing members of the country’s government.
Her announcement came hours after the US seized a sixth Venezuela-linked oil tanker
Machado in Washington
Earlier on Jan 15, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado met US President Donald Trump
Mr Trump has not changed his view that Ms Machado is not a realistic alternative to lead Venezuela, Ms Leavitt added, and does not have a specific timeline for holding elections.
Ms Machado, speaking after the meeting, said she and her supporters could count on Mr Trump, who she said understood that Venezuelan people were suffering and that he was committed to the liberation of political prisoners in the country.
Ms Machado told senators that political repression under Ms Rodriguez is no different than it was under Maduro, and that it had in some ways worsened. Venezuelan rights groups say authorities released far fewer prisoners than they say they have.
Ms Machado added she had presented Mr Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal.
A White House official confirmed that Mr Trump intends to keep the medal.
In a social media post on the evening of Jan 15, Mr Trump wrote: “Maria presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you Maria!”
“He deserves it, and it was a very emotional moment,” Ms Machado later told broadcaster Fox News in an interview.
Ms Machado’s extraordinary gesture comes after Mr Trump had said the award should have gone to him instead – and after he refused to back her following the Jan 3 US military operation to capture Maduro
Mr Trump spoke to Ms Rodriguez over the phone a day earlier
