The acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, confirmed this Sunday that the new oil agreement signed with the United States will have a total duration of "25 years" and that Caracas "will maintain sovereignty over its" natural resources, with projected revenues around 200 billion euros.
In an official message broadcast by the state chain VTV, Rodríguez detailed that the agreement between both governments —by which Washington obtains "majority control" over approximately one-fifth of Venezuela's crude oil reserves— will extend for "25 years" and will include "the development of 17 strategic fields" with a production goal "greater than 1.5 million barrels per day."
The Venezuelan leader added that, according to her own calculations, the understanding with the White House will mean a contribution close to 210 billion dollars (about 193 billion euros) for the State, taking as a reference a price of 65 dollars (around 56 euros) per barrel of oil.
"All this will allow leveraging the recovery of the country and advancing in the improvements that all Venezuelans want, need, and deserve. That is why we chose the path of diplomacy with the United States of America, to transform our differences into cooperation," Rodríguez emphasized during her appearance.
Caracas insists it does not cede control of its resources
In the face of internal criticism accusing the Government of handing over the energy sector to Washington, the acting president wanted to send a message of calm to the population, emphasizing that "what must be really clear" is that Venezuela "retains ownership and sovereignty over its resources," while the pact will allow recovering the operational capacity of an industry "hard hit by sanctions."
"Our country has the largest oil reserves in the world, but having resources underground is not enough," she pointed out, defending the need to attract capital and modernize the sector to fully exploit that potential.
In the same intervention, Rodríguez has insisted that "we need investment, technology, infrastructure, productive capacity to convert that wealth into well-being for our people. It is of no use to have our oil reserves underground, only for it to appear in a statistic or in an accounting and we can say that we are the country with the largest reserves in the world when we cannot convert it and translate it into development for Venezuela," referring to the urgency of transforming crude oil into real economic growth.
In a context of strong political debate over the conditions of the agreement, the acting president has closed her speech defending that the ultimate goal of the understanding with the United States is "a Venezuela that is reborn to improve."