The interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, stated this Sunday that her country must become «a true energy power» and «not fear» an «energy agenda» with the U.S., while the parliament advances in the reform of the law that governs this sector. «From the country with the world's largest oil reserves and the largest gas reserves in this hemisphere, we must now become a true energy power,» stated the official at a meeting with workers at the Puerto La Cruz refinery in Anzoátegui state (northeast). During the event, broadcast on the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), Rodríguez called for, as part of this transformation, «not to fear» an «energy agenda» with the U.S. Between these debates, modifications to the legislation can be proposed. Once this process is completed, the law is sent to the country's president, who is in charge of its promulgation, and it comes into effect upon its publication in the Official Gazette. These reforms are being discussed while Caracas and Washington are entering a new stage in their bilateral relationship, marked by the U.S. attack and the expressed interest of President Donald Trump in Venezuelan oil, whose sale he has announced his country will manage. In this context, she highlighted the importance of production sharing agreements (PSA), which provide for the inclusion of private investment, by indicating that the first agreement of this type, signed in April 2024, allowed a field that produced 23,000 barrels of oil per day to reach 110,000 barrels daily by December 2025. «What we want is precisely for all these successful models of the anti-blockade law to now be incorporated into the organic hydrocarbons law to give greater expansion to our productivity and to receive large flows of national and international investment,» she stated. The anti-blockade law was approved in October 2020 to evade the multiple economic sanctions imposed by several countries, and implies, among other aspects, the confidentiality of the decisions adopted and that the head of the Government may act without the audit of existing laws when it comes to «economic balance» measures. Earlier, Rodríguez led a meeting with the deputy ministers of hydrocarbons and the board of the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). According to the Ministry of Communication and Information, strategies were coordinated at the meeting «aimed at consolidating the growth» of the oil industry, as well as «promoting the productive boost» of this sector. On Saturday, the president of the Parliament and brother of the interim president, Jorge Rodríguez, also led in Anzoátegui the first public consultation for the reform of the organic hydrocarbons law, approved in its first parliamentary discussion last Thursday. A second discussion is required for the project to be definitively sanctioned as law.
