Venezuela approves oil industry overhaul as US eases some sanctions

Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday signed a law that opens the nation’s oil sector to privatisation, reversing a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.

The reform will undoubtedly be her government’s signature policy as it positions the oil sector – Venezuela’s engine – to lure the foreign investment needed to revamp a long-crippled industry. Rodriguez enacted the measure less than a month after the brazen seizure of then-president Nicolas Maduro in a US military attack in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.

Rodriguez, facing oil workers and ruling-party supporters, signed the bill less than two hours after the National Assembly approved it. At the same time, the US Department of Treasury officially began to ease punishing economic sanctions on Venezuelan oil, which were imposed by the first Trump administration, and expanded the ability of US energy companies to operate in the South American nation.

Rodriguez on Thursday also spoke with US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who a day earlier explained to US senators in a hearing how the administration was planning to handle the sale of tens of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela and oversee where the money flows. Venezuela has the largest proven reserves of crude in the world.

The moves by both governments are paving the way for yet another radical geopolitical and economic shift in Venezuela.