Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 12 2021

LatAmOil VENEZUEL A LatAmOil

US senator urges Biden to permit

diesel swaps with Venezuela

A member of the US Senate has pressed the shortly before Bloomberg reported that the
administration of President Joe Biden to roll Venezuelan president was taking new measures
back some of the sanctions imposed on Vene- to attract investment to his country’s oil sector.
zuela and its oil industry. According to the news agency, Maduro has
Last week, Chris Murphy, a Democrat from promised international oil companies (IOCs)
Connecticut who serves as member of the that they will be able to develop the country’s
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he crude reserves with little to no interference
wanted to see the US government lift the pro- from PdVSA, the national oil company (NOC).
hibition on swap deals that allow Venezuela to If these pledges are upheld, they will effectively
exchange crude oil for supplies of diesel fuel. In put an end to PdVSA’s monopoly on the hydro-
a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he carbons sector.
called the ban, which was introduced by for- As of press time, no IOCs had admitted to
mer President Donald Trump last November, participating in talks with the Venezuelan gov-
“misguided.” He also declared that the policy ernment. Under US sanctions law, Washington
was exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the may impose sanctions on any US or non-US
South American country. company that invests in Venezuela’s oil sector or
Murphy noted in the letter that Venezuela co-operate with Venezuela. ™
had only small amounts of diesel left and said
the country’s reserves were likely to drop to crit-
ical levels by the beginning of April. Supplies
would improve quickly and “provide life-sav-
ing relief for millions of Venezuelans” if the US
agreed to reverse the current policy, he argued.
He also argued that the decision to halt die-
sel swaps had not had the intended effect on
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is
not considered by the US government to be the
country’s legitimately elected ruler. The prohibi-
tion “has created no real political leverage with
Maduro, who was able to manoeuvre around the
unilateral sanctions, and instead threatens to
severely worsen the already dire humanitarian
situation in the country,” he asserted.
The senator’s letter to Blinken came to light Shortages of diesel and other fuels are widespread in Venezuela (Photo: FEE.org)

Pipeline explosion damages gas

re-injection plant in Monagas state

VENEZUELA’S Oil Minister Tareck El Assaimi He also stated that the incident was the result
confirmed on March 20 that a natural gas pipe- of a “terrorist attack” but did not elaborate. (By
line in Monagas State had been damaged in an contrast, local authorities have reported that the
explosion. blast occurred because of a pipeline rupture.)
In a brief statement broadcast by the state El Assaimi did not comment on the impact
television channel, El Assaimi reported that the of the explosion, which also caused a fire. How-
blast had hit a 20-inch (508-mm) pipeline that ever, other sources said the incident had forced
usually delivers natural gas to the PIGAP-II gas the national oil company (NOC) PdVSA to
re-injection plant in the El Tejero area of Mona- suspend operations at PIGAP-II so that it could
gas. No injuries have been reported, he said. douse the flames and inspect the damage.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 12 25•March•2021