Following OPEC oil production cut, US could be considering Venezuela

As the OPEC decision to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day leaves America scrambling to find additional sources, Venezuela could be one of them. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday the Biden administration is preparing to scale down sanctions on Venezuela. This would allow Chevron to resume pumping oil in the country. The White House has refuted the report.

“Our sanctions policy on Venezuela remains unchanged. We will continue to implement and enforce our Venezuela sanctions,” National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said. “There are no plans to change our sanctions policy without constructive steps from the Maduro regime.”

This reportedly includes Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro resuming talks with the country’s opposition party to discuss conditions needed to hold free and fair presidential elections in 2024 after a controversial dictatorship rule.

In addition to potentially working out a deal with Venezuela, the White House said the Department of Energy is taking out 10 million more barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to send to market next month. President Biden said he was disappointed in OPEC+ cutting oil production.

“We’re looking at what alternatives we may have,” Biden told reporters at the White House. He said no decision has been made yet on how to respond to the OPEC+ move.

Reuters contributed to this report.