Report: US Could Ease Venezuela Sanctions, Allow Chevron to Pump Oil

Facts

• According to a report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the Biden administration is planning to relax some sanctions on Venezuela to allow Chevron and other US oil-service companies to resume operations there, increasing oil supply on the global market.
• The US has offered sanctions relief in exchange for Venezuela's Pres. Nicolás Maduro's renewed talks with the country's opposition on the conditions needed to hold free and fair elections in 2024, sources allegedly familiar with the proposal told the WSJ.
• This comes in the aftermath of the OPEC+ agreement earlier this week to cut daily oil production by 2M barrels per day from November to drive crude prices up, countering a recent price-lowering trend.
• The National Security Council has said the US sanctions policy on Venezuela "remains unchanged," arguing it will be reviewed after the Maduro regime takes "constructive steps" to "restore democracy in Venezuela and alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people."
• Also Wednesday, Reuters reported that US-recognized Venezuelan interim leader Juan Guaidó had asked the US for details of Chevron's license request to operate in the country because its deal with Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA could be in breach of Venezuelan law.
• Despite hostile relations, Caracas and Washington struck a deal Saturday to swap seven Americans held in Venezuela for two Maduro relatives jailed in the US following months of back-channel talks.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera, Business Insider, Bloomberg, Reuters, and USA Today.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by The Guardian. The Venezuelan oil embargo has failed, and not lifting it would continue a harmful policy, especially amid the global energy crisis. Despite bipartisan opposition to relaxing sanctions, the Biden administration will only harm both the American and the Venezuelan people by keeping this failed approach in place. This new plan may just be the strategy needed.
• Narrative B, as provided by Fox News. Since he took office, Biden has been at war with the US oil business, and this plan would only continue those hostilities. Working with domestic oil companies should be his focus, not opening up Venezuela, which might not even be able to overcome its oil industry’s dilapidated state and produce enough oil to alleviate the problem of high gas prices.

Predictions