In what is being seen as a practical decision dictated by the country’s prevailing economic circumstances, Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA has reportedly thumbed its nose at what appeared to have been an earlier United States-brokered deal under which the South American oil giant would have restarted so-called oil-for-loan arrangements with two European oil companies, Italy’s Eni Spa and Spain’s Repsol SA.
A report published by the Reuters news agency earlier this this week PDVSA “is no longer interested in the oil-for-loan agreements that the US State Department approved in May.” The Venezuelan oil company now reportedly favors an arrangement under which the two European companies provide Venezuela with gasoline in exchange for its oil which will support Caracas’ efforts to respond to transportation problems arising out of scarcity.