Venezuela congress approves hydrocarbons law to open oil sector to foreign investment

Venezuela’s congress has approved a hydrocarbons bill that opens the country’s oil sector to foreign private investment after pressure from the US, and acting president Delcy Rodríguez is expected to give her final approval to the bill imminently. The new hydrocarbons law promises to give private companies control over oil production and sales, ease taxes and allow for independent arbitration of disputes, while largely maintaining state control over oil production.

The law stipulates that even when they are minority partners in joint ventures with PDVSA, private companies may exercise “technical and operational management” directly, and it provides for a possible reduction in royalty payments to the regime from 30% to zero. The changes were fast-tracked through a “public consultation” process and were unanimously approved at the second and final reading by the regime-loyal National Assembly.

Earlier on Thursday Delcy Rodríguez held a phone call with Donald Trump, who disclosed the conversation during his cabinet’s first meeting of the year; Trump said he was about to “open up all commercial airspace over Venezuela” and that big US oil companies were “scouting it out and picking their locations, and they’ll be bringing back tremendous wealth for Venezuela and for the United States”.

Since the US president declared Venezuela’s airspace “closed in its entirety”, at least eight international airlines have suspended operations.

venezuelan hydrocarbons law, delcy rodríguez final approval, pdvsa joint ventures, foreign private investment, royalty reduction to zero, independent arbitration provisions, donald trump open airspace, us treasury general licence, venezuela oil sector, international airlines suspensions, legal uncertainty concerns, josé ignacio hernández