Venezuela’s Rodriguez proposes oil reform to ease investment

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

, spoke in an annual presidential address to lawmakers.

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

, part of a campaign that began to force Maduro out of power. Mr Trump has since said the US plans to control Venezuela’s oil resources indefinitely.

Machado in Washington

Earlier on Jan 15, opposition leader

Maria Corina Machado met US President Donald Trump

at the White House, while Mr Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that he liked what he saw with Ms Rodriguez and considered her extremely cooperative.

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 but did not answer reporters’ questions as to whether he accepted it.

Mr Trump

spoke to Ms Rodriguez over the phone a day earlier

, when he praised her as a “terrific person” following a discussion of oil, minerals, trade and security. REUTERS