The Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the oil agreement with Venezuela before the press at Miami airport this Tuesday, just before boarding his plane to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and asserted that the South American country will be "much better off partnering with the United States" than with the powers that controlled its oil fields until recently.
The statements, broadcast by C-SPAN and released by the State Department, responded to a question about whether Washington is simply looking to extract resources or send troops to the region.
"What I would say to anyone concerned about the negative actions the United States is taking in the Western Hemisphere regarding energy is that those oil fields were previously dominated by China and Russia, as well as Iran. Iran had some concessions, and they are no longer there," Rubio stated.
The Secretary of State was direct in pointing out the inefficiency of the previous operators: "The Chinese and Russian companies controlled those fields, but they never turned them into anything," leaving them largely unproductive.
In contrast, Rubio promised that under the new scheme, the deposits would generate real benefits for the population.
"Now those fields will become productive and will generate royalties and income for the Venezuelan people, eventually through a democratically elected government, let’s hope sooner rather than later," he emphasized.
The head of U.S. diplomacy also warned that money will stop flowing to corrupt officials or Washington's adversaries: "This will directly benefit the people of Venezuela, rather than that money ending up in the pockets of some corrupt official or in the hands of adversaries of the United States and Venezuela."
The oil agreement announced by President Donald Trump at the end of August granted rights to the private company North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) over 17 Venezuelan oil fields with estimated reserves of over 65 billion barrels.
According to Reuters, five of the 14 contracts awarded to NABEP were previously operated by Chinese companies and one by a Russian company. The U.S. obtained a 35% stake in NABEP's parent company and the right to purchase 20% of the production at cost price.
Beijing reacted to the agreement by demanding that its "legitimate rights and interests" in Venezuela be protected, while the Venezuelan National Assembly endorsed the pact on September 1.
The Venezuelan government led by interim president Delcy Rodríguez also publicly supported the agreement, which it described as a "historical milestone in bilateral relations between Venezuela and the U.S.".
Since the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, more than 10 million barrels of Venezuelan oil have arrived in the U.S., with the revenues deposited in an account monitored by the Department of the Treasury and audited by KPMG.
Marco Rubio's tour in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru will continue until Thursday, focusing on security, the fight against narco-terrorism, and commercial relations, as well as humanitarian support for Colombia following the earthquake in August.
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