The war between Russia and Ukraine has not only moved the political and economic interests of Europe, but also in America. After sanctioning Moscow, the United States has to resolve the supply of oil and replace that importer, or so it seems, so Venezuela is shown as an option.
read also: Venezuela, the jewel in America of an expanding Russia
According to the newspaper New York Times, This Saturday, March 5, a delegation of US officials traveled to Caracas with the aim of intensifying efforts to separate Russia from its international allies, according to the text. It is the first time in years that a meeting like this would take place, which has not been confirmed by either country. Although in December 2021 Nicolás Maduro said that he had met in Caracas with a representation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Read also: Maduro assures that he held a secret meeting with the CIA envoy
The United States and Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations in 2019, after the Donald Trump administration recognized deputy Juan Guaidó as interim president. The US embassy in Caracas has been closed ever since.
Francisco Monaldi, economist and director of the Latin American Energy Program at the Baker Institute, considers that Venezuela, in the face of an eventual lifting of sanctions, Venezuelan crude could supply “part of the market left by the Russians” who had made the spaces left by Caracas in the refineries of the Gulf of Mexico.
For the also professor of energy economics at Rice University in Houston, we must consider that the country only produces between 700 and 800 thousand barrels per day while Moscow reaches almost 11 million with an export of 7 million. “Venezuela in the short term cannot even reach 1 million sustainably.”
part of the market left by the Russians. After all, the Russians took a good part of the market that Venezuela had left in the refineries of the Gulf of Mexico, where Venezuela exported an amount very similar to what the Russians sold in 2021…
— Francisco J. Monaldi (@fmonaldi) March 6, 2022
Nicholas a few days ago Maduro said that the country was ready to sell oil to the US, He also assured that with support, the goal of 3 million barrels per day could be reached in a short time, a figure that some still consider unattainable. The president had also begun to joke that Vice President Delcy Rodríguez had been on a “beach” in Miami, so it seems that the approaches are real.
For the economist Luis Vicente León, the conflict in Ukraine “dramatically changes the hierarchy of US interests” and concentrates them rather on seeking mechanisms to prevent the collapse of the oil market and a spike in the price of gasoline.
León also believes that the political variables of Latino interest that are concentrated in the state of Florida will not be more important than seeking that stability and looking at the potential substitutes for Russia that are those oil countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran and “potentially Venezuela”.
This meeting between Caracas and Washington takes place just a few days after the Biden administration extended for another year the executive order that qualifies the Maduro regime as a threat to national security.
(Also read: Sanctions against Russia would hit Venezuela’s oil exports)
ANA RODRIGUEZ BRAZON
CORRESPONDENT IN CARACAS
TIME
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