Even as it reels from United States sanctions that have limited its revenue from oil exports, Venezuela, believed to have the world’s largest oil reserves, is beginning to send signals that it is taking halting steps towards resuming its place in the global oil and gas industry pecking order.
“Venezuela is ready and willing to fulfil its role and supply, in a stable and secure manner, the oil and gas market that the world economy needs,” its President Nicholas Maduro was quoted as saying earlier this month. His administration had announced that it was in the process of striking a deal with Iran to step up its oil refining capacity.
There are two significant things about President Maduro’s declaration. First, it appears to ignore the fact that the United States is yet to call off its protracted sanctions squeeze that has seriously staunched the flow of Venezuelan oil exports. Second, the timing of Maduro’s declaration coincides with global oil supply jitters linked to the current hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. There are signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin is prepared to use his country’s enormous oil reserves as a weapon in its extended war with the west which has come down on the side of Ukraine in the conflict.