The United States on Thursday eased sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry after Venezuelan lawmakers passed reforms paving the way for US companies to return \u2013\u00a0a key goal of President Donald Trump’s intervention in the country.<\/p>\n
Within an hour of lawmakers in Caracas voting to open the oil industry to private investment, the US Treasury Department issued a general licence allowing US companies to trade with state oil firm PDVSA.\u00a0The activities authorised include the refining of oil, the licence said.<\/p>\n
Addressing oil industry workers, Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodr\u00edguez hailed the reform as a \u00abhistorical leap.\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00abWe are taking historic steps,\u00bb Rodr\u00edguez said after a call with Trump, who also announced the reopening of Venezuela’s airspace.<\/p>\n
Trump pressured Caracas to open up its oil fields to US investors after overthrowing socialist leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in a deadly US raid on January 3.<\/p>\n
The US president backed Maduro’s deputy Rodr\u00edguez to take over, on the proviso that she give Washington access to the world’s largest proven oil reserves.<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez has appeared eager to comply with his demands, arguing that an influx of foreign capital is needed to revive the battered Venezuelan economy.<\/p>\n
The reform adopted Thursday paves the way for the return of US energy majors, two decades after socialist firebrand Hugo Ch\u00e1vez seized foreign oil fields.<\/p>\n
It modifies a law dating to 2006 that forced foreign investors to form joint ventures with state oil company PDVSA, which insisted on a majority stake.<\/p>\n
Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, president of the National Assembly and brother of Venezuela’s interim leader, said the reform will help the country recover from years of living under US sanctions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00abOnly good things will come after the suffering,\u00bb he said as he gavelled through the law \u00abfor history, for the future.\u00bb<\/p>\n
Trump has said Washington is now \u00abin charge\u00bb of Venezuela and Rodr\u00edguez will be \u00abturning over\u00bb millions of barrels of oil to be sold at market price.<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez has already ploughed US$300 million from a first US sale of Venezuelan crude into shoring up the country’s struggling currency, the bol\u00edvar.<\/p>\n
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Slow recovery<\/strong><\/p>\n Venezuela sits on about a fifth of the world’s oil reserves.<\/p>\n It was once a major crude supplier to the United States, and multiple US firms operated in the country until 2007, when Ch\u00e1vez led a new wave of nationalisations.<\/p>\n The industry is undergoing a slow recovery after being walloped by years of underinvestment, corruption, mismanagement and six years of US sanctions.<\/p>\n It reached production of 1.2 million barrels per day in 2025, a milestone compared to the 300,000 per day extracted in 2020, but far from the three million achieved at the start of the century.<\/p>\n Trump, who has lavished praise on Rodr\u00edguez, has been pressing oil executives to invest in Venezuela.<\/p>\n Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips exited in 2007 after refusing to cede majority control to the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chevron is the only US firm still operating in Venezuela, under a special sanctions exemption.<\/p>\n The revised law offers greater guarantees to private players, relinquishes state control of exploration, and lowers taxes and royalties.<\/p>\n \u00abThis obviously completely dismantles Hugo Ch\u00e1vez’s oil model,\u00bb said oil analyst Francisco Monaldi, while pointing out that the state will retain some discretion over the issuing of contracts to private players.<\/p>\n The US Department of Energy has already unveiled a plan to develop Venezuela’s oil industry and begun marketing Venezuelan crude.<\/p>\n Rodr\u00edguez says the reform will bring money for \u00abnew fields, to fields where there has never been investment, and to fields where there is no infrastructure.\u00bb<\/p>\n The changes are cause for optimism for many in a country battling economic collapse and mass emigration.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00abThis hydrocarbons reform helps restore our dignity,\u00bb Karina Rodr\u00edguez, a 53-year-old PDVSA employee told a recent rally.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Cuba threat<\/strong><\/p>\n Trump signed an executive order Thursday threatening to impose additional tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba, further increasing pressure on the Communist-led island.<\/p>\n The order did not specify the value of the tariffs or which countries would be targeted, leaving those determinations up to his secretary of commerce.<\/p>\n Cuba, which has largely been under a US embargo since 1962, until recently received most of its oil from Venezuela.<\/p>\n But the United States has moved to block the flow after removing\u00a0Maduro from power and effectively seizing control of Venezuelan oil exports.<\/p>\n Following the Venezuela operation, Trump vowed to completely cut off oil and money going to Cuba.<\/p>\n \u00abI strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,\u00bb he threatened in a social media post.<\/p>\n The United States has been mum on what kind of deal it is seeking with the island’s communist government.<\/p>\n Havana’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodr\u00edguez on Thursday called the latest move in a post on X a \u00abbrutal act of aggression against Cuba and its people, who for more than 65 years have been subjected to the longest and cruelest economic blockade ever imposed.\u00bb<\/p>\n The order signed Thursday threatens added tariffs on any \u00abcountry that directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides any oil to Cuba.\u00bb<\/p>\n The order invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and calls the Cuban government an \u00abextraordinary threat\u00bb to US national security.<\/p>\n Other tariffs invoked under the IEEPA are currently being challenged at the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n Declaring a \u00abnational emergency\u00bb related to Cuba, Trump made similar claims to those made against Venezuela, such as providing support nations hostile to the United States.<\/p>\n \u00abThe regime aligns itself with \u2013 and provides support for \u2013 numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States,\u00bb including Russia, China, and Iran, as well as the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, the order said.<\/p>\n The pressure comes as the communist island is in the throes of its worst economic crisis in decades, marked by recurring power outages of up to 20 hours a day and shortages of food and medicine that have created a mass exodus of Cubans.<\/p>\n US neighbour Mexico has become a significant provider oil to Cuba, though media reports have suggested that flows could be slowing under pressure from Trump.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u2013 TIMES\/AFP<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nrelated news<\/h6>\n<\/p>\n<\/section>\n