Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 18 2022

LatAmOil VENEZUEL A LatAmOil

Maduro (L) met with Owji (R) in Caracas earlier this week (Photo: Twitter/@NicolasMaduro)

Iran explores co-operation with

Venezuela as nuclear talks stall

AS the chances of resuscitating the Joint Com- for extra-heavy crude oil from the Orinoco
prehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) appear to River belt, under a swap agreement with NITC’s
grow slimmer by the day, Tehran is courting parent company, National Iranian Oil Co.
alternative political ties as a means to bring eco- (NIOC), last autumn. It took delivery of at least
nomic opportunity. three cargoes, each containing 1.85-2.00mn bar-
Earlier this week, Minister of Petroleum rels, between September and November of 2021.
Javad Owji travelled to Venezuela to visit oil
facilities and sign energy co-operation deals, Saudi relations
while Iraq’s Prime Minister said that Tehran and Also this week, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa
long-time foe Saudi Arabia are working towards al-Kadhimi was quoted by the country’s Al-Sa-
an understanding. bah newspaper as saying that Tehran and Riyadh
After arriving in Caracas over the weekend, were working towards a mutual understanding
Owji made an official visit to the presidential on improving bilateral relations.
palace, where he met with President Nico- “The brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Ara-
las Maduro to discuss ways to “overcome” the bia and the Islamic Republic are dealing with
impact of US-backed sanctions. the dialogue file with high responsibility and
He was given a tour of state oil firm PdVSA’s the requirements of the current situation in the
Paraguana refinery in the west of Venezuela and region, and we are confident that the under-
met with the company’s president, Asdrubal standing will soon be reached, God willing,”
Chavez, with the intention of signing oil sector al-Kadhimi said.
collaboration deals, though none have yet been He added: “There is a real and wide break-
made public. through in the relations between all the
Owji also met Venezuelan Oil Minister countries of the region, supported by a firm
Tareck El Aissami, with the Oil Ministry report- conviction and sound intentions that the future
ing that the two had discussed “the construction of the region depends on starting to view it as
of routes and mechanisms to overcome the uni- a system of converging and not intersecting
lateral coercive measures imposed by the United interests and this system cannot devote itself to
States government and allied countries”. economic construction and catch up with global
In late January, PdVSA was reported to have development without solving its problems and
taken delivery of around 2mn barrels of Iranian zeroing out its crises.”
gas condensate transported by the National Ira- The prime minister noted that Baghdad’s
nian Tanker Co. (NITC) “good relations with the two parties” which ena-
The Venezuelan company began receiving ble the country to “create a positive dialogue on
Iranian condensate, which it uses as a blendstock Iraqi soil.” ™

Week 18 05•May•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9