Venezuela seeks to negotiate gas abroad in alliance with ENI and Repsol

By: News Team

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The Venezuelan Oil Minister , Tareck el Aissami, assured this Wednesday that his State portfolio, which he leads, is evaluating business opportunities in the field of gas through an alliance with the Italian energy company ENI ( BIT: ENI ) and Spain’s Repsol (BME: REP ).

“We are, jointly, seeing the business opportunities that gas has now, and how we can take advantage of this situation for the benefit of ENI and Repsol, and for the benefit of our republic,” said the official at a breakfast with journalists, in Caracas. .

These business opportunities, explained the minister, are being evaluated by the Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA, as well as by ENI and Repsol, “as partners” and “given that the energy issue is now of the utmost importance worldwide and there is a very high demand “.

“We have very good, permanent relations, we talk every day because we have shared operations,” he remarked, after recalling that both European companies manage 100% of a plant in the Caribbean country.

ENI and Repsol “supply more than 500 million cubic feet of gas to the domestic market,” he added.

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, assured in June that the oil companies that stopped operating in the country as a result of the sanctions imposed by the United States could do so again, after Washington politicians reported that some licenses would be returned to resume operations. their production.

However, until now, Chavismo insists that the sanctions remain in force, although El Aissami said on Wednesday that companies such as Chevron (NYSE) have not stopped operating in the country, although with restrictions.

The Spanish company Repsol, for its part, gradually reduced its equity exposure in Venezuela in recent years due to sanctions and has subsequently received crude as payment for accumulated debts.

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