According to a financial intelligence panel that met Friday in Cartagena, Colombia; in Venezuela, Maduro's government uses food and humanitarian aid as a weapon for social control.
Venezuela's state-run PDVSA has reduced crude sales to its U.S. refining unit Citgo Petroleum while increasing supply to Russia's Rosneft, following a plan signed in May to catch up on overdue deliveries, according to PDVSA documents, sources from the company and its joint ventures.
Venezuelan oil sales to China have jumped by 60% since the start of the year, the country's oil minister said in an interview published on Sunday in the state-run Correo del Orinoco.
After attending the Mercosur extraordinary meeting in Brasilia, President Cristina Fernández and her Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, signed a cooperation agreement to develop a strategic energy plan between state oil companies YPF and PDVSA.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez announced he expected to sign an oil/gas alliance between Argentina’s YPF and PDVSA (Venezuelan Petroleum) when he meets with his peer Cristina Fernandez in Brasilia in the framework of the Mercosur extraordinary summit to officially incorporate the country as full member of the trade group.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez advised Repsol to seek a friendly agreement in its dispute with Argentina and noted that the Spanish energy company held important assets in his country.
An international arbitration panel has awarded US oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp 908 million dollars in compensation for Venezuela's 2007 nationalization of assets, less than 10% of what it sought in a dispute that pitted a top global oil company against one of the world's largest oil exporters.
Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez announced that his country's oil reserves total 217 barrels, topping Saudi Arabia's and making them the largest in the world.
A new US assessment of Venezuela's oil reserves could give the country double the supplies of Saudi Arabia. Scientists working for the US Geological Survey say Venezuela's Orinoco belt region holds twice as much as previously thought.