Anzoategui state, Venezuela
—
It’s a scenario that seemed impossible just 40 days ago. Senior U.S. officials will sit alongside Venezuelan leaders to discuss investments in the country.
But that was the scene Thursday when U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright toured the South American country’s oil production facilities with acting President Delcy Rodriguez.
Walking through vast tank farms filled with compressors, valves and hissing pipes, Wright was given a glimpse of the vast energy potential locked beneath Venezuela’s soil as the United States moves to take control of the country’s oil sales.
During the tour, the U.S. and Venezuelan flags stood side by side at facilities the group visited, and Rodriguez spoke several times in English. Although he mastered it perfectly after studying abroad in the UK, he refused to speak publicly for many years for political reasons.
Thursday’s visit was filled with smiles, laughter and handshakes. The stunning reversal in the international situation comes less than two months after a U.S. Delta Force operation captured Mr. Rodriguez’s predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, before he could be taken into U.S. custody on drug charges.
Wright’s visit is part of a two-day trip to Venezuela that also includes an official reception at the presidential palace in Caracas on Wednesday. Wright told CNN that Maduro’s name was mentioned only once on the first day because the trip was to discuss business, not politics.
“More than $100 million will be invested in renovating this facility and increasing capacity,” Wright said live on CNN from Petropia, a petroleum processing plant operated by a joint venture between U.S. energy giant Chevron and Venezuela’s public oil company PDVSA.
“They have a goal of doubling production in certain areas over the next 12 to 18 months, and perhaps quintupling it over the next five years,” Wright added.
“This is the way forward. This is the way forward. This is the way forward. This is the way forward, this is the challenge of a long-term productive partnership,” Rodriguez told CNN.
Most recently, Rodriguez struck a markedly different tone toward the U.S. government, saying on January 26 that Venezuela would not accept mandates or orders coming from Washington.
On Thursday, Wright was quick to point out the consequences Venezuela would face if the new cooperation was withdrawn, saying, “The leverage we have is that we control the flow of Venezuela’s major industries. We control the flow of capital from oil. (Rodriguez) wants to work with us.”
The group also included Laura Dogu, the new U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to Venezuela, who moved to Caracas less than two weeks ago and is working to strengthen ties.
“We are working at high speed to strengthen bilateral cooperation,” Rodriguez told CNN. “Chevron has been here for 100 years and is doing a great job.”
Over the past two decades, successive Venezuelan governments under President Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chávez threatened foreign companies with expropriation and brought the oil industry to a near standstill.
Conoco Phillips CEO Ryan Lance recently suggested that if the new government is serious about a new business relationship, it should repay millions of dollars in outstanding debt.
Venezuela has made a series of U-turns since the ouster of President Maduro. While Mr. Wright and Mr. Rodriguez visited the oil facility, Congress moved ahead with plans to pardon thousands of political prisoners after years of violent political conflict.
Last month, a bill to amend the Hydrocarbon Law to give preferential treatment to foreign investment in the hydrocarbon sector was passed within days.
Chevron told CNN that Thursday’s visit was the first time in eight years that U.S. media was allowed to visit the oil fields and was a sign of how fraught relations with the United States had become. The two countries severed diplomatic relations in 2019 after the United States supported Venezuela’s opposition party against Maduro’s government following a disputed election.
much remains to be done
After the removal of President Maduro, the task of returning the South American nation to a free and democratic state remains enormous.
Under Maduro, the country consistently ranked last in the world for democracy and rule of law, and more than 7 million Venezuelans have fled the country to escape recent humanitarian and political crises, according to the United States.
“Five weeks into the transition process, there’s still a lot of work to do,” Wright told CNN on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday praised the relationship between the two countries as “extraordinary” and said: “We’re dealing very well with President Delcy Rodriguez and her members of Congress.”
Asked if President Trump would visit Venezuela before his term ends, Wright said he didn’t know, but “I wouldn’t rule it out.”
Wright said the United States does not recognize the legitimacy of the Rodriguez government and that students were marching in Caracas Thursday morning demanding new elections.
Asked about Rodriguez’s future and her repeated assertions that Maduro remains Venezuela’s legitimate president, Wright said the United States “is not going to tell Delcy what her future role will be. As you know, it ultimately depends on the Venezuelan people.”
Wright defended increased U.S. investment in Venezuela’s oil industry, despite the uncertainty about Venezuela’s roadmap to democracy. He told CNN that the U.S. could not wait until elections were held in Venezuela before starting to invest, arguing that the best way to improve the situation for ordinary Venezuelans is to allow oil revenues to flow back in after years of underinvestment and U.S. sanctions.
A Venezuelan oil worker at one of the facilities told CNN twinklingly that he hoped former colleagues who had fled the country in recent years would return, before hastily asking that his name not be used for fear of political persecution if he was caught speaking to reporters.
Still, there was a palpable sense of a new beginning Thursday. Standing in front of an inspection table during the photo shoot, Wright picked up a glass flask containing rich, low-grade, but incredibly abundant Venezuelan crude oil.
After a quick check, he smiled at the camera, nodded, and kissed the glass.
Everyone cheered.
