The US government, under the Trump administration, has slightly changed its rules for Venezuela’s oil industry. It gave the oil company Chevron special permission to increase its work there. This is a careful change, not a wide-open door, but it might allow other foreign oil companies to return to Venezuela in the future.
At the same time, the US is using a two-part strategy. While it’s allowing more oil to be produced, it is also increasing pressure on Venezuela’s President, Nicolás Maduro. As part of this, the US recently sent three navy warships to waters near Venezuela to help fight drug trafficking. The government had also previously charged Maduro with drug-related terrorism and offered a $50 million reward for his arrest.
For Chevron, this special permission is a big deal. The company could produce about 250,000 more barrels of oil per day. While that’s not enough to change global oil prices, it’s a significant boost for Chevron itself, increasing its oil production by more than 10%. Chevron’s refineries in the US are now in a great position to process this cheaper Venezuelan oil, which they haven’t been able to get for years.
The decision may offset some of the fears around Russian Oil supply and could be seen as a move in anticipation of supply constraints if the US follows through on harsher restrictions on Russian Oil purchases.
However, this is unlikely to affect demand for Russian Crude. China and India are the biggest buyers of crude oil from Russia. India has already seen additional tariffs imposed as a result of a its Russian Oil purchases but has remained steadfast thus far.
This was evident by Narendra Modi attending the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) meeting in Tianjin over the weekend where he was pictured alongside China Leader Xi Jinping and Russian Leader Vladimir Putin.