Paris Meeting Sheds Light on Venezuela's Sanctions Relief

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Written by Amir Richani for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Venezuelan government and opposition have met in Paris as part of the Peace Forum, offering hopes for new dialogues and hinting towards the ease of sanctions.

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron organized a meeting as part of the Paris Peace Forum with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez and Norwegian Chancellor Anniken Huitfeldt to talk about the political situation in Venezuela. Representatives of the Venezuelan government and the opposition also participated in the meeting.

The objective was to push for the resumption of dialogue between the parts that could lead to better democratic conditions and the ease of sanctions on Venezuela.

The actors highlighted that the Paris event was productive and hoped this could lead to further negotiations as Venezuela prepares to host its presidential elections in 2024.

The government and the opposition ended the dialogue in Mexico in October 2021, and they have yet to agree on a new date for its resumption.

As part of the dialogue, the Venezuelan government and opposition would negotiate sanctions relief, mechanisms to ease the humanitarian crisis in the country, and democratic conditions ahead of the elections.

The Venezuelan representative in Paris told Blu Radio that the country has more than 700 sanctions against individuals and businesses, which include Venezuela's oil company PDVSA (Maracaibo, Venezuela). Since January 2019, Venezuela's oil exports have been sanctioned by the U.S., hampering the nation's oil production and access to international markets.

It does not seem likely that the U.S. will remove sanctions from Venezuela over the short term. Nevertheless, oil sanctions relief could be channeled through Chevron (NYSE:CVX) (San Ramon, California), the last U.S. major in Venezuela.

As part of this dialogue in Mexico, the U.S. could decide to extend Chevron's license to operate in Venezuela, which expires this month, while also allowing the company to restart normal operations in the South American country and export a portion of its oil production.

In the October OPEC monthly oil report, the international organization reported Venezuela's September oil production at 659,000 BBL/d. However, this is only a fraction of the country's oil output seen during the 2000s.

So far, there is no specific date for the restart of dialogue in Mexico. However, the parties have agreed that the meeting in Paris was positive, ushering in the possibility of the restart of negotiations soon.

Besides sanctions relief, a humanitarian agreement and more democratic conditions are among the main topics of discussion. Through these negotiations, Venezuela expects to receive about $3 billion from frozen Venezuelan assets that will be invested in the humanitarian crisis with the help of the United Nations and overseen by the government and opposition.

Additionally, better democratic conditions ahead of the 2024 and 2025 elections and the release of political prisoners will also be key topics of discussion once the Mexico process is restarted.

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