By Marianna Parraga, Sarah Kinosian and Timothy Gardner CARACAS/HOUSTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright pushed on Wednesday for expanded U.S. investments in Venezuela as part of the highest-level U.S. visit focused on energy policy in nearly three decades, while warning about the legitimacy of Chinese businesses in the OPEC country. Wright said the U.S. is prepared to help boost oil, gas and power output in the country, following talks with interim President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. "This year, we can drive a dramatic increase in Venezuelan oil production, in Venezuelan natural gas production and Venezuelan electricity production," Wright said during a televised briefing after the meeting. Venezuela is currently producing about 1 million barrels per day of crude. The boost would lead to more job opportunities, higher wages and quality of life for Venezuelans, while providing benefits for the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere, Wright said, adding that the U.S. wants to "set the Venezuelan people and the economy free." Wright told reporters at a roundtable after meeting Rodriguez that legitimate deals by legitimate Chinese companies are fine in Venezuela, but U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is trying to avoid "damaging" deals that Chinese enterprises have done in other countries in the region. "China does a lot of deals in countries where they are not mutually beneficial," he said. "They have been quite damaging to nations in South America, Africa and around the world. So I think with U.S. help and with U.S. partnership we want to stop those kind of deals." China has already bought some of the crude offered by the U.S., he said. Wright also said there is no deadline for lifting all sanctions on Venezuela, and added that there needs to be debt restructuring deals to compensate companies after expropriations years ago in Venezuela, but those will not happen "overnight." Venezuela owes billions of dollars to industrial conglomerates, oil and mining companies after deep waves of nationalizations two decades ago. But the secretary added that the risk of energy companies investing in the country is now lower after the government passed an oil reform last month. The changes might not yet be enough to encourage large flows of capital, but are a step in the right direction, he said. On Tuesday, the U.S. issued a new general license to facilitate the exploration and production of oil and gas in Venezuela. The authorization follows previous licenses broadly allowing oil exports and fuel imports. The licenses were seen by some analysts as 'America First' relief by providing clarity for U.S. companies while maintaining the previous standard of case-by-case review for non-U.S. entities. The sanctions relief on oil exports and sales specifically excludes firms and individuals from rivals including China, Iran and Russia. Russia this week criticized the U.S. strategy and called it discriminatory. BUSY AGENDA Wright and Rodriguez face the Herculean task of organizing the recovery of Venezuela's oil industry after decades of underinvestment, mismanagement and U.S. sanctions, while putting U.S. investors at the front of the line. Wright's trip follows the capture of President Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces in early January, a $2 billion oil supply deal agreed to by the U.S. and Venezuela shortly after, and a $100 billion reconstruction plan for the country's energy industry promoted by Trump. Wright said elections in Venezuela were not discussed on Wednesday. Rodriguez said earlier in the day she hoped the relationship between Caracas and Washington would progress "without obstacles." The U.S. embassy in Caracas, which began reopening in late January, said Wright's visit will be key to advancing Trump's vision for Venezuela. "The U.S. private sector will be essential to boost the oil sector, modernize the electric grid, and unlock Venezuela's enormous potential," Charge d'Affaires Laura Dogu wrote in a post on X. She also attended the meeting in Miraflores. The last U.S. energy secretary to travel to Venezuela was Bill Richardson, who made several trips between 1998 and 2001 under former President Bill Clinton. Visits to Caracas by high-ranking U.S. officials have been virtually nonexistent since, as the bilateral relationship with former President Hugo Chavez and then Maduro was strained. Wright also is scheduled to meet executives from companies including Chevron and Spain's Repsol this week. He is expected to stay through Friday and meet with local consumer goods companies before visiting Petropiar, the largest oil project Chevron and state energy company PDVSA operate, in Venezuela's main oil region, the Orinoco Belt, sources familiar with the preparations said. POLITICAL CHALLENGES Wright's visit, taking place even as Venezuela's political context remains volatile, reflects a longer-term U.S. geostrategic interest in Venezuelan oil as Washington seeks to reshape global energy markets while pressuring Russia, according to Thomas O'Donnell, an analyst who specializes in energy geopolitics. The Trump administration has moved beyond detaching Venezuela from Russian and Chinese influence to pursuing a "doctrine of American energy dominance" that could provide the U.S. capacity to eventually take Russian oil offline if geopolitically required, he said. Washington continues working on licenses to allow Venezuelan companies to buy products, invest, boost oil production, create new jobs and grow export revenue, Wright said on Wednesday. Trump's broader agenda is focused on peace, commerce and trade, "not conflict, not military action," he added. Senator John Hickenlooper, a Democrat from energy-producing Colorado, told reporters on Tuesday after a classified briefing by Wright that "the whole thing … is like doing an impossibly difficult high dive, or an impossibly difficult freestyle skiing flip maneuver. All we can do is hope that it succeeds." (Reporting by Marianna Parraga, Nathan Crooks, Sheila Dang, Timothy Gardner and Reuters staff; Editing by Chris Reese, Mark Porter and Stephen Coates)
(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)
