Venezuela and the US sign a 25-year oil agreement with a goal of 1.5 million barrels per day

The president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, reported this Saturday that the oil agreement reached with the United States will be valid for 25 years with a production objective of more than 1.5 million barrels per day.

"Our goal goes further with the signing of other important agreements that include large companies such as Chevron, Repsol Eni, Shell, BP, among others. We want to be an energy power," said the president in a message broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).

Likewise, he explained that, taking as a reference a price of 65 dollars per barrel, the country can receive 209,335 million dollars under the agreement. “In concrete terms, this means that for every barrel produced and sold, about $19 enters our country directly,” he indicated.

Rodríguez added that this project contemplates the development of eight green blocks in the Orinoco Oil Belt - an area that covers more than 55,000 square kilometers located in the east and center-east of the country -, with minimum royalties of 16% and income tax of 34%, which, he considered, will allow Venezuela's economic recovery to begin.

Likewise, he thanked the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, for their efforts to achieve this agreement. "But there is something that must be absolutely clear, Venezuela retains ownership and sovereignty over its resources," stressed the president in charge, after defending that in this agreement "each party contributes what it can do better."

The president highlighted that the United States will provide capital, technology and operational capacity to “advance the recovery of a strategic industry hard hit by sanctions.” In this context, he stated that Venezuelans “have the right to know how much is invested, how much is produced, how much the State receives and what the conditions are for the operators.”

This Saturday, a US official told CBS that the agreement between both countries would include the granting of a 100-year concession to a private joint company. The US Government, according to this official, would control 55% of this joint company, divided between the shareholding in the project and the ability to obtain oil from it at cost price.

The source described the joint firm as the world's second-largest corporate owner of proven oil reserves, but declined to specify names.

On Friday, the United States and Venezuela announced this historic agreement by which Washington will control more than 20% of Venezuelan crude oil reserves. Delcy Rodríguez explained that the development of 17 strategic fields is planned, with “a proven potential of 65,000 million barrels of oil.”

For his part, Marco Rubio described the agreement as “a great victory for both the American and Venezuelan people.”