Apr. 15 at 4:38 PM
Trump involvement opens doors in Venezuela
When the Trump Administration was able to take Maduro and his wife into custody on drug charges in early January, it also moved to eliminate or trim the sanctions to get Venezuela’s energy industry moving again.
From the U.S. point of view, that meant enticing global companies to come in, put money to work and get people working.
President Donald Trump organized a summit on Jan. 9 to see if companies were willing to invest up to
$100 billion in Venezuela.
The Trump Administration followed up by permitting Shell, BP, Chevron, Eni and Repsol to negotiate with the Venezuelans.
The energy companies had their own agendas. Some like refiner Valero were more than happy to get permission to start buying Venezuelan crude. It is often quite heavy but can be refined into diesel, jet fuel and other products, including gasoline.
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