PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, said on Wednesday it was continuing talks with the United States about oil sales, as a company board member told Reuters the US would need to buy supplies at foreign prices.
On Tuesday, Washington announced an agreement with Caracas to recover $2 billion worth of Venezuela’s dirty money, a sign that Venezuelan government officials are responding to US President Donald Trump’s demand that they open up to American oil companies or risk military intervention.
Trump said he wanted Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez, installed this week after US President Nicolas Maduro stepped down, to give the US and private companies “full access” to his country’s oil industry.
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PDVSA said in a nutshell that the groups were negotiating the same terms as those with foreign partners such as Chevron CVX.N, which is a close associate of the company, which currently controls all US oil exports.
“The process … is based on a strict transaction under legal, transparent and mutually beneficial conditions,” the company said.
PDVSA board member Wills Rangel, who is also the leader of the union, told Reuters that the US would need to buy goods at international prices if the country wanted Venezuelan oil.
“If they want to buy it, they will have it at the right time, sold at an international price,” said Rangel. “It’s not the way (Trump) intends, as if that oil belongs to them because they say we owe them. We don’t owe anything to the United States.”
Chevron, which has an exclusive US license to export Venezuelan crude despite sanctions, is the only company currently exporting crude to the South American country, Rangel added, as the US embargo on Venezuela keeps exports tied to China, the main source of its oil, crippled.
