“We are ready to invest more in Venezuela. Today we produce 45,000 barrels a day, in total, and we are ready to triple this figure in the next three years, investing heavily in the country,” Repsol CEO Josu Jon Imaz said this Friday at the meeting held at the White House between the Trump Administration and representatives of almost twenty oil companies.
And Trump’s recent actions on Venezuelan oil have placed oil companies at the center of the international geopolitical board, with direct effects in Latin America, but also affecting Western countries, Spain among them.
Our country does not depend predominantly on Venezuelan oil, although it does represent a relevant volume of heavy crude oil used by certain Spanish refineries, especially Repsol, which has operated in the country for more than 30 years.
“We are in Venezuela with our partners at Eni, producing the gas that guarantees the stability of half of the electricity supply in Venezuela. In addition, we are present on the ground. We have personnel, facilities and technical capabilities,” Imaz said in a meeting with Trump in which he also thanked the US president for “opening the door to a better Venezuela.”
In addition to Repsol, officials from other oil companies such as Chevron, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Continental, Halliburton, HKN, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Américas, Eni, Aspect Holdings, Tallgrass, Raisa Energy and Hilcorp participated in the meeting.
Trump’s ambitions for control of Venezuelan oil are generating significant uncertainty in the sector, although the US president has stated that US oil companies will invest some $100 billion to revitalize the industry in Venezuela.
“They are going to invest their money, not our Government’s. They don’t need it, but they do need our protection,” Trump said this Friday after a meeting in which the CEOs of Exxon and ConocoPhillips were skeptical about that investment: “If we look at the commercial structures and the environment that is in place today in Venezuela, it is impossible to invest.”
How it can affect Spain
The main impact may be in prices. Uncertainty about Venezuelan supply tends to put upward pressure on the price of a barrel of Brent, a reference in Europe, which could translate into higher fuel or electricity prices.
In a business sense, Repsol is the large company that could be affected, both for better and worse, by the interests it has maintained in Venezuela for decades and the use of Venezuelan oil for its commercial operations.
For now, the company has conveyed to Trump its intention to triple its production in the country, so it could be expected that the actions of the United States in Venezuela, at least in a business sense, will have a positive impact for Spain.
